Suburban cheer teams move on to finals
The finals are set, and lots of suburban high schools will compete for the IHSA state cheerleading championships on Saturday in Bloomington.
After a tightly competitive preliminary round on Friday, 60 teams have been sent to the sidelines and 40 remain to compete for four state titles, which begin at 11 a.m. Saturday.
The top 10 finishers in each division return to compete Saturday.
Perennial coed powerhouse Buffalo Grove High School led all scorers Friday, finishing with 91.72 points out of a possible 100. On Buffalo Grove's heels in the coed division are Barrington High School in third, Grant High School of Fox Lake in fourth, Downers Grove South in fifth, Mundelein High School in eighth, South Elgin in 9th and Glenbard West, 10th.
Missing the cut in coed were Lake Park, Elk Grove, Palatine, Hoffman Estates, Downers Grove North and Naperville North high schools.
In the large school division, Conant advances to the finals, finishing the prelims in third place. Lake Zurich and St. Charles East tied for seventh, and Neuqua Valley (10th) rounded out the suburban finalists.
Missing the cut in the large division were Stevenson, Maine South, Cary-Grove, Naperville Central, Metea Valley, Rolling Meadows, Huntley, Grayslake North, Crystal Lake Central and Bartlett.
Four suburban schools are moving on to Saturday's finals in the medium school division.
Antioch finished second in Friday's preliminaries, only 1.52 points behind Lemont High School. Wauconda finished fifth, Timothy Christian of Elmhurst finished sixth and Grayslake Central came in seventh.
Missing the cut in the medium division were Hampshire, Vernon Hills, Montini Catholic and Glenbard South high schools.
No suburban schools are competing in the small school division.