For the second straight season, the College of Staten Island cheerleading squad took home second place at the annual CUNYAC Cheerleading Championship, which took place tonight at Brooklyn College. The exciting night was filled with thrills from start to finish, and CSI did take first place in the first-ever stunting competition held this year. The host Bulldogs won the event competition overall, their fifth straight championship.
After an opening round exhibition from Kingsborough Community College, the official competition got underway with each school getting five minutes to put on their finest performances. A total of five CUNYAC schools competed and CSI was third in line.
The Dolphins performed brilliantly putting on a great show with an eclectic mix of music, cheer, and crowd participation. Their high degree of difficulty shined, and CSI landed many of their routines and tumbles effortlessly.
While the judges tallied their votes, there were two other competitive performances. The first was for jumping, which saw one member from each team exhibit their finest jumps, and the other event was stunting, which involved a small cluster of student-athletes from each team doing a set routine that involved a series of flips and highly difficult mid-air stunts.
Medgar Evers took top honors fro jumping, and the next series of awards were for the stunting phase of competition and CSI took center stage. The Dolphins scored 270 out of a possible 300 points, beating Brooklyn College for first place.
Finally, when the winners of the overall performance were announced the pro-Brooklyn crowd was delighted to learn of their team’s victory, albeit a narrow one over CSI, who came in second and Medgar Evers College, which came in third.
Despite the tough feelings surrounded by coming ever-so-close to the CUNYAC title, the cheerleading squad had plenty to be excited about. As only a second year program still in its relative infancy, the team has a splendid job and has emerged among the class of the CUNYAC and beyond.
Despite the cheerleading season being officially over, the team still intends to cheer on some of our spring sports at marquee contests this season. Their 2010 improved performance sees them inching closer to CUNYAC supremacy and the team will look to build on its exploits come next season.