HIGH SCHOOL CHEERLEADING: HORSEHEADS EXCITED FOR CHANCE TO FINISH SEASON IN BINGHAMTON FOR STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS (24 PHOTOS) (2024-03-01)

By Brian Fees
Southern Tier Sports Report
In the biggest moments the Horseheads cheer team seem to be at their best.

They were good at the STAC Championships, finishing second overall among all the teams in the conference. But, at the Section IV Championships they were even better, posting the best score of any team in any category to win a sectional title and advance to states.

The Blue Raiders score of 82.35 helped them top runner-up Union-Endicott (78.65) in the most competitive division at the meet.

“I definitely think we play this kind of game where we kind of wait and save our best for our last,” senior Alivia Augustine said.

For Augustine, Olivia Giammichele, and Lexi Ostrander, this is their senior year and they didn’t want their careers to end at sectionals.

“I’m very excited (for states),” Augustine said. “I think this is a very good shot to show how hard we worked and all the effort we put in, so I’m excited.

“Definitely during sectionals I wasn’t ready to give it up yet, so I think that was an extra push to have this last one.”

For Giammichele and Ostrander they felt like sectionals would not be their last meet.

“We are all really excited,” Giammichele said. “Especially us three seniors right here, our last time ever competing and we get to compete at states.

“I feel like even at sectionals when we were done competing we felt like this wasn’t our last one. We were going to go on. We just had this feeling and it feels really good.”

“We are all really excited for all the hard work we put in we are excited to leave it all out on the mat,” Ostrander said. “I feel like the three of us together, we had a talk and were like this could be our last time. But, it’s not, we knew it wasn’t going to be our last time. We had faith in ourselves and we had faith in our teammates.”

The girls feel like the big difference between the STAC Championships and sectionals was the energy.

“I think the thing we needed to improve was our energy, and we had one of our teammates be like you have to be loud out there, you have to cheer loud and for some odd reason it just clicked hearing that and I definitely think that was in our mind,” Augustine said.

The other thing the Blue Raiders did was went out with the mindset that they were just going to do their best.

“I think we went out there not with the mindset necessarily to we want to win, it was put everything we have onto the mat,” Giammichele said. “Not just with the mindset to win, we did it because we really love what we are doing.”

“I feel like we just left everything on the mat that last time at sectionals,” Ostrander said. “I feel like everybody put their all out on the mat.”

Horseheads competes in the Class B competition in session two at 2 p.m. The Elmira girls are also competing, and they are in Class A at 9 a.m. at Visions Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton. The Elmira cheer team won Class A and they compete at 9 a.m.

Having the state meet at Binghamton is special for the Blue Raiders.

“I definitely think having our family be able to come there and be so close is definitely a contributing factor and it gives us the energy we are able to feed off and push hard,” Augustine said.

Horseheads has a big fan base and the girls are excited to have them support them.

“We definitely have a lot of people show up for us,” Giammichele said. “It’s really good, it definitely keeps our energy up, especially seeing our parents right before we go on. We can see everyone up in the stands.

“Being able to go out there and compete somewhere close to home and have our family with us is going to be special.”

“Going out and seeing the whole sea of blue before we go out, it just helps us with our confidence, Ostrander said.

While getting to states is special, the Blue Raiders have bigger goals. They want to improve on last year, and try and finish high at states.

“The past few seasons states hasn’t been our best performance,” Augustine said. “I feel like we have this extra push this season to put our best out there and make it of finals and keep going on, because we really want this.”

The Blue Raiders would love to be top five and make it back for the finals at 5:55 p.m.

“I think our goal is to compete better than we have at states in the past,” Giammichele said. “It’s one thing to go to states and another to place top five or even higher. If we place top five we get to move on and compete again, so that’s our goal right now. Once we get to that our goal is obviously going to be to win, bur with now we just want to place top five.”

“We are very confident in what we are going to be able to put out on that mat,” Ostrander said. “I think we are all extremely excited. The push we have had this week, it’s a different type of push than we have had during the season. I feel like even being in that arena, it will give us more excitement to go out.”

A lot has changed for the seniors over the course of their careers. Earlier in their careers there was no states during Covid, and there weren’t even many normal meets. Now, these athletes get to cap their careers in a packed arena competing against the best in New York.

“During the Covid years and watching the meets back and even being at the meets, there were no fans, it was just you on the mat with the judges,” Augustine said. “To be able to get back to where we are right now, and be Abel to get back to this huge arena and compete at states and have all our friends and supporters there is just amazing.”

Those times earlier in their careers just makes the girls appreciate all of this even more.

“I think especially because during Covid and during that time we didn’t know if we were ever going to get back to this,” Giammichele said. “We didn’t know if we were going to have a senior year. Seeing the seniors for those years and how their seasons kind of ended, I think it’s special for us to be able to have a senior year and be able to compete against other teams in person.”

“Just going from that and working our way back to where we are, that’s a major accomplishment,” Ostrander added.

And, now the Blue Raiders get to end their season on the biggest stage, competing for the ultimate prize — a state title.

“It’s just really special, it’s a really special way to end my season,” Augustine said. “With all the effort and everything we have put in, to see it go this far and everything we have accomplished is just amazing.”
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