CHEERLEADING: CORNING'S STURDEVANT ENJOYS EXPERIENCE AT CHEER WORLDS (2022-05-18)

By Brian Fees
Southern Tier Sports Report
For Corning’s Meghan Sturdevant it’s always about balance.

The Hawks senior recently headed to Orland for cheering worlds with her New York Icons Perfection team out of Rochester, N.Y.

Sturdevant also spent all winter as one of the best bowlers in Section 4 for the Corning bowling team.

The balance between both sports can be a lot, but it’s worth it when Sturdevant has success in both sports.

“There is a lot of days I have to travel there (to Rochester), including during the bowling season,” Sturdevant said. “I have a lot on my schedule.

“It’s pretty challenging, I know most nights I am up late finishing up homework after cheer practice and bowling practices. Both of my coaches are able to work things out and make it where I’m able to be at both places.”

It’s been quite the balance for Sturdevant between the two sports.

The Corning senior would sometimes miss bowling practice for cheer, and so then on her free time she’d go put in more practice bowling.

“Most of the time I know I can go down during my free time on weekends to practice for bowling,” Sturdevant said. “If I have to miss a bowling practice, since cheer is so far away, I can’t miss a cheer practice.

“I am usually pretty busy. I usually have two days where I have cheer practices with the long drives and that’s challenging and during bowline season I’m at the bowling center every day except Sunday.”

Still, all that work is worth it as Sturdevant loves both sports.

All of the long hours and hard work paid off as Sturdevant got a chance to compete at Worlds.

“We competed at a competition in Atlantic City, we got our bid in order to qualify to go to worlds,” Sturdevant said.

Worlds was a fun experience for the Corning senior.

“It was an amazing experience, it haas been a dream of mine to go there,” Sturdevant said. “We did pretty good for what we were hoping for. It’s a pretty difficult division we are in, we placed 25th. We did pretty well for what we wanted to go and experience.”

Not only was Worlds fun, but being in Florida for Worlds was special, and it was fun for Sturdevant to have his family there watching him.
“They were all excited, some of my family was able to go this time, it was more than just me and my mom going,” Sturdevant said. “Having them there and watching me perform was really nice.”

The Corning senior got to spend about a week in Florida and turn it into a little family vacation as well.

“It was nice to have a vacation, but it was also stressful coming back with all the school work I had to do,” Sturdevant said.

As a cheerleader it was also special to see where some top cheerleaders have been.

“It was really nice, I really like being down in Florida with the warm weather,” Sturdevant said. “I was able to go to like Daytona and where the college teams perform and it was cool to get that experience. I was there and they (the college teams) were there a few weeks ago.”

And it was special to witness so many great teams at worlds.

“Seeing what they go through and all the work they put in pushes me to be the same so I can have the same experiences they do,” Sturdevant said.

“Most of the teams I watched were higher level teams and I watched them have fun and how they performed on the floor and they gave their all.”

While Sturdevant isn’t going to cheer in college, her cheer days aren’t over, as she will continue with her club team.

“All star cheerleading you can super senior and I”m going to college for nursing at CCC,” Sturdevant said. “I choose CCC because I want to still do all-star cheerleading for a couple more years.”

For bowling the Corning senior will likely bowl with family and friends, but she’s not planning to bowl in college.

“For league wise, I’ll probably do some with my family and practice if I want, but with the high school season I’m done and I don’t think I’m going to go to college for bowling,” Sturdevant said.

While she’ll be in college, Sturdevant feels like things will actually be easier for her schedule wise as she won’t have bowling, and her school schedule is a little different in college.

“I definitely feel like it will be easier,” Sturdevant said. “My college schedule I was able to make it where if I need more time to get to the gym and get more days my schedule will allow it.”

It’s special for Sturdevant to have more chances to cheer.

“I’m real excited, I feel like it gives me more of an experience up there and more time to be involved,” Sturdevant said.

For the Corning senior it’s fun cheering for her club team and meeting a whole new group of friends.

“It’s really nice actually meeting so many new people up there, it’s really nice,” Sturdevant said. “It’s weird having two sets of friend groups in Corning and Rochester, but I’d say the ones in Rochester are some of my closest friends.”

And, going to worlds gave her a chance to meet some amazing cheerleaders from throughout the world.

“There were definitely a few people I got to meet, I was excited to meet and they are well known in the cheer industry. Teams around the country I was able to say hi and good luck and they said the same back.”

Sturdevant’s teammates are mostly all from the Rochester area and they see how much work she puts in to get to practices, and they all help to make things easier for her.

“They definitely see how dedicated I am and they make sure they schedule a time to come out and work on stunts and tumbling at a time I can make it there.”

The Hawks senior knows how much dedication it has taken from her mom to get her to this point as well.

“My mom has been driving me for the past two years and now that I have my license she has been able to let me get comfortable going to Rochester so I can drive up by myself,” Sturdevant said.

Having her mom take her to all the practices while in high school has made things easier for Sturdevant.

“It’s definitely been easier, I can get my school work done in the car, and if it’s a late night practice I can sleep a little bit,” Sturdevant said. “I am very thankful for all the dedication, the driving she did for me.”
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