Jan. 16, 2005
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - After a strong semifinal routine on Saturday, UCF's varsity cheerleading squad couldn't double its pleasure placing 13th in the finals of the Universal Cheer Association College Nationals on Sunday evening at the Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex.
"This result is hard to swallow because it was far from what our expectations were coming in," Coach Linda Gooch said. "There's nothing you can say that can make it better. They knew they had a great performance in them. We just weren't the best team tonight."
The UCF cheerleaders dropped some stunts early in the routine, and were not able to shake off the early errors.
"We made some mistakes in our semifinal routine as well," Gooch said. "It's hard to imagine, but some of our veterans got a little rattled out there."
Gooch was still able to take positives out of the performance.
"Once again our young kids stepped up in pressure situations," Gooch said. "There is something to be learned here. You have to focus on the here and now. You can't think too much about the past, or look ahead too far into the future."
Only a few squads turned in perfect performances. A few characteristics of a perfect performance are full twists in tumbling by a majority of the members on the squad, and execution on two or more double-twisting basket tosses.
KnightMoves, the UCF dance team, turned in a ninth-place performance tying with Florida State earlier Sunday evening at the Wide World of Sports Complex.
Below are the final standings for both cheerleading and dance.
Division I-A Cheerleading Results
1. Kentucky
2. Tennessee
3. Hawaii
4. Memphis
5. Alabama
6. Ohio State
7. Indiana
8. Minnesota
9. Oregon State
10. Central Michigan
11. Arizona State
12. New Mexico
13. UCF
14. Louisiana State
15. Cincinnati
16. Texas
Division I-A Dance Results
1. Minnesota
2. Wisconsin
3. Memphis
4. Cincinnati
5. Kansas
6. Kentucky
7. Alabama and Tennessee
8. Louisiana State
9. UCF and Florida State
10. Michigan