​​For Ava Bloyd, senior, traveling to the Universal Cheerleaders Association national competition in Orlando is her favorite part of the MHS cheer program.

“I love traveling with my friends and getting to perform in front of such a huge crowd,” Bloyd said.

The MHS Cheer program has attended this competition seven times throughout its history. In 2019, the team first qualified for finals. They repeated that this year, making it to finals for their Game Day competition. The team placed 8th overall.

More than 1,000 teams participated in the competition, with more than 30 teams in their division.

Even when Bloyd thinks about performing on the biggest stage for high school cheerleaders around the country, she said she tends to appreciate the smaller moments.

“Some of my favorite moments from Nationals are the smaller moments like getting ready with my teammates and going out to dinner because it’s fun to spend time together outside of practice,” Bloyd said.

Because this was her last time going to Nationals, she said it was important for her to take in every moment. She is still undecided about whether she will continue cheerleading, but she would like to if the opportunity arises.

Elizabeth Basta, program coach, said to advance to the next round of competition, the team must meet certain criteria depending on the competition.

“There’s two competitions that we have: there’s a Traditional and then there’s Game Day. For Traditional, there are certain requirements on a judge’s sheet that we have, like cheering, stunting and tumbling. We have to hit all of those markings,” Basta said, “ For Game Day, it’s a different routine. It’s based off of crowd performance, sharpness, more like what you do at a football game and spirit,”

Riley Wilson, sophomore, said this was her first time going to the competition. Her favorite part of the trip was advancing to finals and celebrating with her team.

“It felt amazing. We were all so excited, and we were hugging each other,” Wilson said.