The Marietta High cheer team celebrates after winning its second straight OHSAA Division III state championship. (Photo Provided)

MARIETTA — For the second straight year, the Marietta High varsity cheerleading team has won the Ohio High School Athletic Association State Game Day Competition.

Last weekend at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, the Tigers repeated as the Division III champions. It’s only the second year for the competition and MHS has won it both times at the D3 level.

“We won the inaugural one, so being able to come back and defend that state title, it was a lot of pressure,” said Marietta head coach Sarah Snow. “We were hoping to do it. To secure that meant a lot to the girls and the coaching staff.”

Marietta scored 44.63 in “Fight Song/Band Chant” and 42.73 in “Crowd Leading” with no deductions to equal a final score of 87.37. Runner-up Bexley finished at 85.07 followed by Columbian at 83.90, London at 80.00, New Philadelphia at 79.63 and John Glenn at 78.80.

Those were the six schools to advance out of the qualifying round and into the finals.

“We come in and we perform something like what we would do on the sideline at a football game,” Snow said. “Six teams move forward from the qualifying round and come back an hour later to perform again. In the final round, they throw out a situation you would hear on the football field. For us, it was ‘First down for the Tigers.'”

From there, the team has to react and perform.

“The girls have to to know that first down means offense and we have to call a cheer for offense. If you don’t call the right cheer, you get a penalty or deduction. They’re looking at, is our routine good, do we have good cheerleaders, do we understand the game we’re cheering for? It’s important to show people we’re invested in the sport we cheer for.”

The Tigers put in a lot of hard work and preparation to earn this success on the big stage.

“We’ve been practicing since June,” Snow said. “We practice about two times a week for two hours for this specific event. We practice different routines for other competitions throughout the week as well. It’s a lot of getting out at other competitions to get judges’ feedback and see what we can do better. Then, taking that feedback and improving what we do. That’s really what we’ve been focused on, getting the girls out in front of as many crowds as possible so they’re ready to score well and take home first place.”

Elizabeth Haller and Lyanna Smith are Marietta’s senior captains. Also making up the squad are Kennedy Brown, Ericha Lawell, Raelyn Antill, Kaelyn Antill, Ziza Stanley, Keera Prim, Carlee Barnhart, Mattigan Ward, Kileah Lieras-Kelley, Amya Lightfritz, Molly Graham, Valentina Marasco, Miya Tomblin and Makayla Patterson.

Snow gave a lot of credit to fellow coach Jenn Hogue for getting the Tigers ready for the competition.

“She led them to this,” Snow said. “She takes the lead role on the game day squad.”