By Ernie Gonzalez — Assistant Executive Editor
For the third time in six years, the San Jose State University cheer team took home first place at the United Spirit Association Collegiate Championships.
The national competition, held every year in Anaheim, Calif., features 10 of the top Co-ed four-year college cheerleading programs in the country.
After three consecutive runner-up finishes for the Spartans between 2016 and 2018, SJSU sealed its first-place victory ahead of Colorado Mesa University and Fresno State University, respectively.
In January, the cheer squad didn’t know if it was eligible to participate in the event because it needed to get clearance to register from the SJSU Athletics department, according to sources.
Up until about a week ago, the cheer team had been practicing only a certain number of routines. However, it went back to the drawing board and choreographed a whole new list — a decision that would pay off.
SJSU finished near flawless in both Day 1 and Day 2 of the event, without a single deduction in all of its routines.
Before and after their performances, the group kept Angela Jose, who they lost in a deadly car accident in October, in their thoughts and dedicated the victory to her.
The entire team was in tears as it stood in line before going out on stage, according to sources.
There wasn’t a Disneyland trip, but as for what’s next for the bunch, all eyes point to Las Vegas. They’ll merge with the other 10 Mountain West cheer teams for the conference’s basketball tournament in mid-March.
Statistics of the event were not made available at the time of publication.
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