NEWS                                                                                    Walnut Valley Unified School District

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                   880 S. Lemon Avenue

April 10, 2014                                                                        Walnut, CA 91789

 

Contact:       

Kelli Gile, Office of Community Resources

(909) 595-1261 ext. 31204

 

WALNUT, CA--The United Spirit Nationals was held March 28-30 for Cheer, Song, Dance and Drill teams from all over the nation.  Over 600 teams with 8,000 students competed at the event held at the Anaheim Convention Center.

“Our Brahma teams were amazing,” said advisor Whitney Prenger. Teams competed in the preliminary rounds on Friday, and earned a bid to Sunday’s final competition for Varsity Cheer and Song.

“Diamond Bar High School Pep is so proud and honored to carry on the tradition of excellence that the school sets in many areas of performing arts. Cheer and Song work all year long and it was so exciting to see their hard work pay off at the end of a great year with an exciting competition season, it felt so good to win!”Prenger said.

In order to make it to finals, teams had to finish in the top 50% of their division.

“We had three Pep teams competing in Nationals, JV Cheer Small Novice, Varsity Cheer Small Novice, and Varsity Song Advanced Pom,” Prenger said.

“We had a great day Friday starting with our Song team,” she said.

“They placed 1st in their division in the preliminary round which gave the team a ray of hope for the final competition. We were in second last year at this time, so we knew our competitors were working hard to chase the first place title, and our victory would not come easy,”Prenger added.

After the preliminary performance, the girls were greeted by six DBHS graduates from last year’s team.

“Along with the feedback and judge’s comments, the team practiced for the final Sunday performance, took the time to bond as a team, and enjoy our last competition together,” Prenger said.

Sunday came early with a 6 a.m. call time, and 8 a.m. performance with a near flawless performance.

“Our team really chose the right time to peak and put their best performance on the floor for the judges, families and friends in the audience. We didn’t know how the results would go, but we knew we did our best and were extremely proud and honored to have such a great performance,” Prenger said.

JV Cheer was in a very competitive division with 23 teams in their category. The Brahma team with seven girls was competing against squads with up to 16 members.

“In the cheer world, that’s a huge discrepancy since we were being judged on elements such as stunting, and formations which leaves a smaller team with less options. Our JV girls had a great performance, maxing out in difficulty and gymnastics, and are looking forward to making finals next year,”Prenger added.

Varsity Cheer had a great performance on Friday and anxiously awaited the results at the awards ceremony, until it was cancelled due to the safety hazards from the earthquakes that shook that night.

“We all went to bed not knowing the fate for Varsity Cheer and awoke to find that we were in the final competition for Sunday. The girls worked hard to make final changes and create a routine that would wow the judges. Sunday’s competition was fierce, and we walked away with a 5th place out of 18 teams in our division,” Prenger said.

The Diamond Bar High dance team brought home two-championship 1st Place awards said teacher/advisor Janna Lindenberg,

The DBHS Dance Company competed in four divisions.  They placed at the top of their divisions in all categories earning 3rd for Small Dance, 6th for their Championship Large Lyrical. 

They won 1st Place for Coed Hip Hop for the 2nd year in a row and 1st for All Male Dance for the fourth year in a row.  They also received the Sweepstakes award in the Hip Hop category for their Coed Hip hop. 

Congratulations to the Diamond Bar High School Dance Company who took two 1st Place awards and Sweepstakes at the United Spirit Nationals. Photo by Cuong Nguyen. 

DBHS Dance results included 1st Place All Male, 1st Place and Sweepstakes Co-Ed Championship Hip Hop, 3rd Place Small Dance Open, and 6th Place Large Lyrical Championship. Photos courtesy of DBHS. 

Pep results at USA Nationals included 1st Place Varsity Song, 5th Place Varsity Cheer, and 11th Place JV Cheer. Photos courtesy of DBHS.