PHS Cheerleaders Place at State Individual Meet

Senior Ashley Cotta captured 3rd, followed by junior Kaili Dunlap (8th), senior Ashley Reynolds (11th) and sophomore Erynne McGoewn (14th).

The individual meet features one-minute routines choreographed by contestants chosen by the league's coaches. Each coach nominates cheerleaders from other teams for the honor of competing, ending up with 8-10 contestants from each school.

The State Individual title was won by Ashley Alardi of North Providence, followed closely by her teammate Giavana Ciolfi in second.

According to Coach Deb Valente "this meet is an opportunity for everyone to shine." 

In the team meets, people mostly notice the flys; they are the girls who are thrown in the air and raised overhead during stunts. Each fly has 3-4 girls handling her, all of whom dance, cheer and jump well.

The one-minute individual routine must contain cheer, dance with music, running and standing tumbling and a double jump. To place, these compulsory elements must be performed close to perfectly and the routine must be creative, full of energy and well choreographed.

The other PHS cheerleaders who were selected to compete were sopomores Eden Younkin, Hannah Fleming, Brianna Dublin, Kaitlan Mitchell, Amber McCollum and freshman Ashlee Underhill.