Western Sydney University’s (WSU) cheerleading team recently won the gold medal at the 2018 Division 1 nationals competition (uni games).
The competition, which was held at the Gold Coast this year, involves teams from all Australian universities competing in various levels of cheer.
The event involves a mixture of groups with different genders and numbers competing.
This year WSU sent up a co-ed team of 26 to compete in level two.
The team consisted of an odd combination of members with some coming from the WSU Cheerleading Club and others coming from sports like rugby and tennis.
Cheer captain and Londonderry resident Bianca Azzopardi puts the team’s success down to their coach Caitlin Alderson and her “awesome” routine, along with the team’s determination and hard work.
The team trained under Alderson for around three and a half hours a day on the seven Sundays in the lead up to the event.
Members regularly practiced on their way to class or outside of national’s training to ensure they would nail the routine.
Azzopardi has attended six uni games – twice for cheer – and she is proud of her team.
“This year the scheduling worked well for the cheer squad as we had almost every other sport in attendance which made the day even more exciting.” said Azzopardi.
The competition involves teams completing one routine that lasts for 2 minutes 30 seconds, and the judges decide from that who performed the best.
WSU’s hard work paid off as their routine involved much harder stunt difficulties than previous years and the overall performance of the team was stronger and faster than the other teams at level two.
This is only the second time WSU has sent a cheer team to uni games and having won both times means a lot to the team and the university.
WSU have been undefeated in cheer over the past two years, having won last year at uni games and this year winning two national events as WSU Cheer Club.
Azzopardi said that winning at uni games was important to the team as they had come together from “all walks of life … having formed a family where we still talk almost every day.”
Azzopardi was stoked to win in what could be potentially be her last uni games, especially as they were unsure of their success having faced such strong and equal competition.
“All the universities did really well, to the point where no one could pick who had won,” she said. “It was a bit up in the air.”
WSU look to continue their success at cheerleading next year, looking to grow in size and return to Uni Games next year to defend their title.
