Local teens cheer with all their might

St. Charles North senior Amelia Hurst figured there was only one thing she could do when she saw the huge crowd at Saturday's IHSA state cheerleading competition in Bloomington: go out there and give it her all.

"(The crowd) was amazing," Hurst said. "It was a huge adrenaline rush. We didn't know what to do with it except put it all out there on the floor."

She and her team did just that, finishing eighth in the state in the coed division -- a major improvement over last year's 16th place finish.

St. Charles North has qualified for state in all three years of IHSA competitive cheerleading.

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"This means a lot," said St. Charles North senior Lauren Toth. "We did so much better than we did last year. I'm so proud of this team. After we got off the floor, it was so worth it. All of that hard work pays off. It really does."

Toth said they fed off the audience's enthusiasm.

"It was so much fun out there," Toth added. "I felt a lot of energy from the crowd. When we broke out in dance, the crowd went nuts. It felt pretty special."

Based on its sectional scoring, St. Charles North had a 10th place ranking going into the state finals, which were shortened to a single day because of bad weather.

"It's awesome that the girls got in the top 10 for the first time," St. Charles North coach Bethany Herrera said. "This is a huge accomplishment for St. Charles North. We are ecstatic."

South Elgin, Jacobs and Huntley rounded out the list of Fox Valley-area schools that competed this weekend at the U.S. Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington.

South Elgin made the school's first-ever IHSA state team finals appearance in any sport. The team finished 17th in the coed competition.

"We were excited to be here. It's definitely a once-in-a-lifetime thing. You only get to feel like this for three minutes of your life once. This is something you get to hold on to. I was lucky to experience something like this," said South Elgin senior co-captain Alex Napoleon.

South Elgin coach Jennifer Hayward termed the team's effort in Bloomington as, "our best performance of the whole season."

South Elgin senior Lucious Smith, one of the team's male cheerleaders, had only one regret.

"This is my first year on the cheerleading squad. I regret that I waited this long to do this," Smith said. "I think I might look into doing this at the collegiate level. That's how much I enjoyed it."

Smith felt the team clicked at the perfect time.

"We did our best," he said. "Everybody was pumped. We put in a lot of new stunts. We pushed through everything and everything hit. We made sure everything was nice and clean."

Jacobs finished 22nd in the large team competition. Last year, they finished 13th.

"We didn't do as good as we could have done," said Jacobs coach Jenny Flesch. "We started out a little shaky."

But Flesch saw plenty of positives during the routine.

"Our cheer went pretty well," Flesch said. "We hit all of our stunts and ended strong. This was definitely a great experience for us, especially for the younger ones. It was an accomplishment to make it out of the sectional. Our sectional was pretty tough."

This was the first year Jacobs had all four grade levels competing on the varsity team. A total of 14 cheerleaders are scheduled to return next season.

"We took freshmen through seniors this year," Flesch said. "Since the beginning of the year, we really came together. All of the grade levels meshed together. The girls have really shown a lot of improvement. We definitely have plenty to build on here. We also have a very good JV squad. We've got a lot of talent at Jacobs."

Huntley finished 24th in the coed division. It was the team's second state finals appearance.

The state cheerleading competition continues this weekend in Springfield with the Illinois Cheerleader Coaches Association championships.

Bartlett, Geneva and St. Charles North will compete in the large varsity division, while South Elgin is entered in the coed competition.

St. Charles North also will compete in the small junior varsity division, while Jacobs is entered in the large junior varsity division.