The UW-Oshkosh Cheer and Stunt Club won its eighth state championship in the Wisconsin Association of Cheer and Pom Coaches competition. 

The team competed in the state championship finals for varsity and collegiate cheer teams in Resch Expo Center on Feb. 20. With this eighth win, the UWO Cheer and Stunt Club holds one of the best records reported among the Universities of Wisconsin. 

Lylah Baumann, the club’s vice president, said that they have been working on their routine since October. She’s been helping with choreographing the team’s routine and dance motions. 

“I am extremely proud of all of the hard work the girls put into this season,” Baumann said. “Looking back at it this year will definitely be memorable and I think we killed it and very much deserved the win at state.”

The routine is carefully fabricated based on difficulty, scoring and execution, according to Thea Bender, the team’s president.

“To get inspiration, I have looked at the previous year’s teams that we’ve competed against at nationals to see what they’ve done,” Bender said. 

The club members have proved their commitment to the sport for years, securing the state championship title years in a row. 

According to Bender, it’s about “how hard we push ourselves and the high standard that we hold ourselves to.”

She said that the team’s “expectations for stunt and pyramid difficulty have gotten higher and higher each year.”

Their total score was 94.7 out of 140, finishing nearly 20 points ahead of the second-place team. 

The team builds on knowing each other. Without trust, none of the intricate stunts could go up. With spending six-plus hours a week together during the season, “everyone inevitably forms a bond,” according to Bender. 

“With having that close of a bond the team also learns to trust each other, which also allows us to be successful in our performances,” Bender said.

Bender said there’s multiple levels of proficiency on the team, and the members are all over the board.

“Some girls came from all-star cheer or high school cheer, others have experience in dance or gymnastics and some girls have never cheered before in a day of their life,” she said.

Aside from expertise, being committed matters more.

“A lot of them have so much passion for this sport and our club specifically, and they’ve proven that they’re capable of very difficult things,” Bender said.

Bender started pursuing cheer competitively as she started college, and is in her fourth and final year on the team. 

Bender said that during her time as a president, she hasn’t made major changes in how the club is run. With the interest for the game team peaking over the past two years, she said more positions have been added, such as a captain and co-captain.