Wheeling Park Three-Peats; Bishop Wins Its First
Patriots, Bishops Claim Cheering Titles on Saturday in Charleston
CHARLESTON — For Wheeling Park, winning West Virginia cheering state titles is starting to become the norm. For Bishop Donahue, it is piece of history.
Both schools captured championships on the Charleston Civic Center floor Saturday, with the Patriots claiming the Class AAA title for the third straight year and the Bishops winning their first Class A trophy in school history.
“It feels pretty good,” Wheeling Park coach Shawna Shepherd said. “It is true what they say that it is harder to defend a title than to win that first one.
“There is a lot of pressure to repeat. The first one was amazing. The back-to-back was pretty special. The three-peat is incredible.”
Wheeling Park entered the season with a talented squad but had lost six seniors. With one senior and four juniors, the Patriots were mostly made of underclassmen.
That might mean bad news for the rest of the state in the coming years.
Shepherd said the Patriots have “the best tumbling sequence in the state.”
“They try to put on a show while doing a loud cheer and engaging the crowd,” Shepherd said. “It is a pretty jam-packed two minutes and 30 seconds.”
According to Shepherd, the team had an amazing week of practice and they were confident, but “with cheering, you just never know.”
“You don’t get videos of other teams like you do in football or basketball to prepare for them,” she said.
The Patriots are led by senior Abigayle Hudrlik and juniors Shayla Raab, Bria Spigarelli, Abby Skrzypek and Meghan Murphy.
The rest of the squad is sophomores Morgan Fox, Natalie Fischer, Kyla Leigh, Alexa Crebs and Abbie Vernon, and freshmen Kenedi Pasquale, Ashley Wiethe, Aubrey Wiethe, Braden Cox, Alexandra Knight and Jessica Angius.
While the Patriots rode home with the championship trophy last year, Bishop Donahue went home with the runner-up plaque, finishing second to Man.
While that was a history-making moment and nothing to be ashamed of, there was still more.
That led to a more determined Bishops team this season. This time, there was no stopping them.
“This is an unbelievable feeling for these girls,” Bishop Donahue coach Dana Mele said. “Losing last year gave them a lot of motivation to come back this year and get the job done.
“It is a really special moment. There are so many good teams down here. All these girls that make it down state are phenomenal. We knew we had our work cut out for us but these girls wanted to be state champions.”
Leading the Bishops are six seniors in Josibeth Bonar, Madyson Keller, Jennifer Richmond, Elizabeth Smith and Megan Stout. Juniors are Lauren Bonar, Caroline Brannan, Olivia Carte, Sophia Gretchen, Melissa O’Kelley and Madison Wiedebusch. Tiara Bertrand, Danielle Ferrera and Naila Thomsen are the sophomores, while Alice Jones, Mercedez Neuman and Christine Smith are the freshmen.
“Those six seniors are going to be a hard group to lose,” Mele said. “This team, they are true cheerleaders. Some Single A schools, their cheerleaders play volleyball and basketball. We are very fortunate to have a team that strictly has their mind set on cheering.
“We hit our motions. A big thing was hitting our mounts. That gave them the momentum and energy. Once you are in the clear and the weight is off our shoulders, you can just perform.”
The championship trophies aren’t the only ones coming back north. Brooke was runner-up in Class AAA and Wheeling Central came in second in Class A.
Robert C. Byrd won Class AA. Fairmont Senior was second.
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