Upper Darby Varsity Finishes 5th in the Nation

The team beat more than 43 other teams to make it to the top five.

After a very long and trying season, the Upper Darby varsity cheerleading took 5th place at this year's UCA National High School Cheerleading Championship.

And although they were second last year, the squad continues their tradition of being one of the top teams in the U.S.

Since mid-January, the UD Royals have practiced daily, sometimes even twice a day.
 

On Wednesday, an already exhausted team arrived at the airport more than two hours early. Their flight was scheduled to leave at 6:40 p.m. Thanks to mechanical problems, the varsity squad didn’t leave Philadelphia until 11:45 p.m., arriving at their hotel around 4 a.m.

The rest of the weekend was work, work, work.

The ladies woke up early for the next two day and practiced for hours at a gym the coaches had rented out.

On Saturday, they competed in the preliminary round, only to find out they came in third place and had to go to semi-finals. Of course, semi-finals aren’t a bad thing, but for the three years before, their scores were so high that they bypassed semis and went right to finals.

The girls took this minor setback in stride, though, chalking it up to another chance to perform their routine in front of a large crowd.

On Sunday morning, that’s exactly what they did – performed their hearts at semi-finals and came out on top.

They were moving on to finals.

The girls had about two hours to spare in between semis and the big show, and they were surprisingly relaxed.

Happy to be moving on after such a trying few weeks, these fighters were pumped!

They went into finals and performed like never before – their energy was through the roof, their cheer and dance were perfectly executed and their stunts were perfectly in sync, minus one small fall – which they recovered -- in their opening partner stunts.

The Royals came off the mat feeling great, but with fourteen other teams in finals – four of which were nearly flawless, the team came in fifth place.

No small feat considering the endless practices, moving from the large varsity division to medium (the most difficult division in the entire competition) after losing a few girls in the beginning of the season.

So that’s it, the Upper Darby varsity cheerleading squad fought their way to the top, beat more than 40 other teams from all over the country and are now fifth in the nation.

But watch out, they’ll be back next year.
 

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