From the football field to volleyball courts and beyond, NC State cheerleaders are everywhere throughout the athletic seasons. What many students might not realize is that those cheerleaders are competitors too, and they go up against some of the best teams in collegiate cheer.

From Friday, Jan. 12, to Sunday, Jan. 14, junior Angelina Potynsky, junior Alex Devonmille, senior Cora Mabrey and junior Malea Hurley traveled to Orlando, Florida for the Universal Cheerleaders Association’s College Nationals. With extra practices and hard work, the group won the national title in the partner stunt category.

“We practiced and pretty much prepared on our own alongside the team practices,” Hurley said. “The team practices are a priority, and so deciding that we wanted to compete at UCA meant that we were going to have to put in the extra work.”

This competition is the culmination of everything these athletes have worked toward and allows them to showcase their skills at a national level. Competing as a stunt group and not as a team, the group represented the Wolfpack on their own and dedicated themselves to their sport outside of their scheduled practices. The reward is the third national title the Pack has won in this UCA event.

“We started stunting together a year ago, and we’ve entered into stunt competitions at summer camps we attend and won those,” Hurley said. “That’s when we decided we wanted to compete at UCA again, which we did the year before and got third. So we kind of just built on what we’ve already been practicing.”

The national-title-winning team wasn’t the only group representing the Wolfpack in the group stunt. In order to compete in this event, groups must send a video in the fall semester showcasing their talents and wait to be selected. Two more groups from NC State qualified and made the trip down to Orlando to compete, placing third and 10th in the same event — the first time in its 41 years of competition that the Pack has had three top-ten finishes.

When it comes to building the routine, all creative freedom is left to the performers in each group. Different skills show a different level of difficulty to the judges, so getting the right moves in the routine is crucial to scoring high and winning.

“I usually just look at skills from all over the highest level college teams and see what they’re doing,” Potynski said. “I look at winning routines from past years to see the structure and outline of what they use, looking at what’s done to it, transitional elements, dismounts and things like that. We then put all the skills we already know how to do and place them in.”

The group is now looking ahead to April and the NCA and National Dance Alliance competition in Daytona, Florida. Last year, NC State cheerleading won its eighth NCA Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championship in the small coed cheer division.

“It goes beyond what fans see,” Hurley said. “Our competition season is kind of hidden. Unless you know cheerleading, you don’t understand how difficult the elements are and the whole process of putting together a full routine, especially with 20 people. For it all to come together and execute perfectly within two minutes is extremely difficult.”

The NCA and NDA College Nationals will take place from Wednesday, April 10, to Saturday, April 13, and will be available to watch on Varsity TV.