Texas A&M cheer took home fourth place in the 2022 National Cheer Association College Nationals competition on April 6-10 in Daytona Beach, Fla.
The squad competed against 20 teams in the all-girl Intermediate 1A division. The preliminary and finals performances took place April 7-8. The two scores of each performance are averaged together to make up the final competition score. As the 2022 season ends, coach Atosha Rampy said she is preparing for the upcoming freshman class to focus on improving next year’s national competition.
The women set a goal to receive an overall score of 98 at nationals this year. This score would top the current program record of 97.8 from NCA Nationals in 2019, when the squad last won the championship title, senior squad President Marissa Ramsey said.
According to Varsity.com, the team fell short of this goal and received an overall score of 95.794. The judges placed a deduction of 2.25 points on the preliminary performance on Day 1. On Day 2, the squad hit a near-perfect routine and received a small half-point deduction for the finals performance.
A&M cheer won back-to-back national championships in 2018 and 2019. Although the girls made a strong comeback on Day 2 to ultimately receive fourth place, the girls are hungry to bring the national title back to College Station, Rampy said.
“Normally, [the girls] are off until September, but the team is eager to get to work,” Rampy said. “They will be doing tumbling and stunt workouts until the end of the school year. Over the summer, they have weekly workouts, and we are looking to attend our first camp as well.”
Rampy said the squad would host new officer elections on April 13 to elect returning squad members to leadership positions.
“Once we have our new leadership team, we will get to work on planning fundraising events, recruiting clinics and talking about any adjustments that we feel need to be made in the fall to make things better,” Rampy said.
The team will host tryouts for the 2022-23 season in early September, Rampy said.
“We are looking forward to growing the program next season and can’t wait to get back to work,” Rampy said.
Dates and more details regarding tryouts are pending. Follow @tamu_cheer on Instagram for team updates.