Moses Lake High School cheerleaders take third at state

MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake High School cheer and stunt team

beat nine other teams to place third at the Washington state

cheerleading championships.

The 22-member team traveled to Everett on Jan. 22 where they

competed with nine teams, says tumbling coach Toby Black.

MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake High School cheer and stunt team beat nine other teams to place third at the Washington state cheerleading championships.

The 22-member team traveled to Everett on Jan. 22 where they competed with nine teams, says tumbling coach Toby Black.

"There were only three teams from the east side of the mountains so it was kind of a privilege on our side to go over and compete," says Black. "There were eight teams that we had to beat and there were 58 teams overall in all different categories."

In December, the team won a grand champion trophy for their high overall score of 198 points during the regional competition in Spokane and was one of three teams from Eastern Washington selected to participate at the state level.

Only teams receiving at least 195 points qualified for the state competition.

"Going into this competition there was about four or five teams we knew we couldn't beat," Black says. "But we went into it just going to do our best. They were cool as cucumbers, they were super confident and super-solid in what they were doing."

Their confidence helped the team win third in the large co-ed team category, which requires at least four boys to participate.

The team's final score was 222 points, missing second place by just one point.

Team members include Carlos Avila, Jory Balderas, Madison Bowser, Carly Burgess, Veronica Coburn, Andrew Escamilla, Brook Faulkner, Samantha Fina, Dino Gonzales, Whitney Goodrich, Taylor Jones, Lori Kautzman, Mariah Klindworth, Kim Ledbetter, Jessica Lundstrom, Julia Page, Anthony Rodriguez, Mariana Rosas, Kira Samuels, Katelyn Stroud, Amanda Sursely, Shantel Tatum, Emily Villafana, Nevin Walsh and Nia Watts.