Butler
cheerleaders 5th at nationals
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BUTLER
TWP— Randi Stoner is gone, but the success of the Butler varsity competitive
cheerleaders continues.
Stoner stepped down from coaching the team last season after 13 years, 10 with
the varsity. She was a junior on the Butler cheerleading squad that placed fourth
at nationals in 1985.
Under coaches Lindsay Hasychak and Shawna Gerhart, the Golden Tornado
cheerleaders placed fifth out of 42 schools in the Division I medium varsity
division at the UCANational High School Cheerleading Championships last weekend
in Orlando, Fla.
Butler has finished among the top 15 at nationals in each of the past seven
years, placing among the top 10 six times.
Butler has been competing at UCAnationals since 1983. Its best finish was
second place in 2006.
"While Randi Stoner is no longer coaching in this program, it is really
her legacy that we are all carrying out,"Hasychak said.
Gerhart and Hasychak both cheered for Stoner-coached teams. Hasychak coached
with her the past three years and numerous members of this year's team performed
under Stoner's watch as well.
"We had a lot of changes this year," Hasychak said. "Some of the
girls who had been on the top of our pyramids were asked to work the bottom.
"Our routine was different, the coaching, we moved from the small to
medium division, but we pulled it together."
Brittany Shankle, the lone senior on the squad, served as its captain. Shankle
and juniors Kristin Karam, Megan Kosar, Alisha Slomers and Kellie Sub completed
their third seasons with the team.
Butler placed 15th at UCAnationals last year.
"It was very important for us to go back down to Florida and improve upon
that,"Shankle said. "Finishing among the top five was a big thing in
our minds."
That top-five finish seemed to go by the wayside, however, when a Butler
cheerleader fell during a pyramid stunt early in the routine.
A cheerleading routine at nationals lasts 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
"When something bad happens, you have to forget about it and move
on,"Hasychak said. "You lose more points if you make more mistakes.
"The girls were practically flawless after that. Other than the fall, it
was the best they've ever performed the routine."
Shankle was as surprised as anyone when Butler learned of its fifth-place
finish.
"It was difficult (after the fall), but we still had to finish," she
said. "When we learned there was a three-way tie for ninth, we were hoping
to be one of them. When we saw we got fifth, we just started jumping up and
down."
Butler rehearsed its routine roughly 360 times before heading to Florida.
"You're talking about 32 weeks, three practices per week, doing the
routine four times each practice. ... It adds up,"Hasychak said.
Besides Shankle, the Butler team consisted of five juniors, six sophomores and
six freshmen.
Shankle plans to attend UCAstaff tryouts and to major in education at Slippery
Rock University while trying out for the cheerleading squad there. She
eventually wants to be a physical education teacher.
"At first, I hated it," she said of being captain of Butler's team.
"I'm not the leader type at all. But after a while I enjoyed it. A lot of
the girls looked up to me and, hopefully, learned from me.
"I definitely think this team will do a lot better next year. If not for
the fall, we would have done a lot better this year."