RALEIGH— Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons captured the Carolina Cup in the 13th annual North Carolina High School Athletic Association state invitational cheerleading championships at the Raleigh Convention Center on Saturday night.
Cheer Ltd., Inc., the NCHSAA’s corporate partner that assists with the invitational championship, has established the Carolina Cup to recognize annually the top high school varsity cheerleading team in the state. It goes to the varsity-level team that earns the highest cumulative score in the whole competition, regardless of the division in which it competes.
Gibbons recorded 87.4 points in its medium varsity competition, which was the highest score of the entire event, to win the medium varsity in Division 1 and also grab the Carolina Cup. Gibbons is the only school to have earned the Cup three times, having won it in 2007 and ’11.
This was the first year that the competition was classified to a degree. The Division I competition was for 3-A and 4-A squads while the Division 2 competition was for 1-A and 2-A schools.
Asheville Erwin won the large varsity non-tumble in Division 1, and Forbush took top honors in that category in Division 2. South Caldwell was the large varsity Division 1 champ and Davie was the varsity co-ed winner.
A.C. Reynolds was the first-place school in medium varsity non tumble in Division 1
Cherryville took top honors in the small varsity division for Division 2 while Heritage was the Division 1 winner. In the non-tumble category. North Gaston was Division 1 winner with North Carolina School for Science and Math winning in Division 2. Pamlico County was first in the non-building category.
For the medium varsity squads. Northside took top honors for Division 2, Elizabeth City Northeastern for non-tumble in Division 2, and Cardinal Gibbons in Division 1.
A total of 145 teams registered to participate in the event.
