La Cueva, Rio Rancho, Bernalillo all earn state championships at the Pit on Saturday

La Cueva, Rio Rancho and Bernalillo all carried home blue-colored trophies Saturday on the second and final day of the State Spirit Championships at the Pit.

The Bears overcame a stunt fall to win Class 5A cheer. The Rams took first in 5A co-ed cheer, as did Bernalillo in the Class 1A-4A co-ed division.

There was a fall in La Cueva’s cheer with music routine, but the Bears overcame that to beat runner-up Cleveland by three points (181.33-178.27) 

“But,” Bears coach Daniele Knee said, “I will say, everything they did leading up to that, and everything they did after that, they hit with 100% certainty.”

Eldorado was third in 5A cheer.

“This was one of our best performances, definitely,” La Cueva senior Marley Cavazos said. 

Another senior, Bia Charney, took her perspective really big picture.

“Our big thing this year was trusting each other, and trusting what the universe has planned for us,” she said.

Admittedly, the Bears said it was an up-and-down season, but at state, it only requires one well executed day. La Cueva, Knee said, rolled with a mistake and “(got) right back up with a smile on your face.”

Rio Rancho scored 180.27 points for their two routines, including a staggering 93.3 points in the Rams’ first of two routines Saturday.

Centennial (178.93) and Hobbs (166.43) were next in the standings behind Rio Rancho.

“That was the most electric feeling I have ever felt,” Rams coach Nate Batista said of the moment when the Rams were announced as state champions. “This team has had such passion. It was important having a unified front, and that is what made this team exactly what it is.”

Iliana Perea, a Rams senior, said the squad overcame much.

“We didn’t do our strongest routine in our cheer with music, but I’m just so proud that we were recognized for our difficulty, our cleanliness, and that all the hard work we put in this entire season was shown on the mat today,” she said.

Bernalillo co-ed coach Jennifer Jaramillo couldn’t say for sure how many years it had been since the Spartans were a state champion, but however long it was, she was fighting back tears.

“They’ve been hungry all season,” she said after Bernalillo was crowned the Class 1A-4A co-ed champion. “We have a lot of seniors, they knew coming into today they were ready, and they were confident.”

The Spartans scored 166.73 points, just over 3½ points ahead of Lovington. Bloomfield placed third.

“We were so excited. We’ve been waiting for this all season,” Bernalillo senior squad member Joseph Lopez said. “We put everything out there.”

Once Lovington was announced as the runner-up Saturday, many of the Spartans, sitting about 10 rows up at the south end of the Pit, seemed to sense that their name was going to be the next one, and last one, heard.

“It was a one in a million experience for us,” senior Briana Sotelo said. “We lift each other, we have no negativity, we helped each other, we pushed each other. Through the hard times, we were always there for each other, no matter what.”

Taos (4A), Cobre (3A) and Questa won cheerleading titles, just as they all did a year ago.

The Tigers won comfortably, scoring 179.33 points, which was 10-plus ahead of runner-up Deming. St. Pius was third. Taos continues to lord over 4A, with its sixth consecutive blue trophy.

On the strength of its excellent score in the first routine, Cobre scored 147.97 points, about 3 ½ points in front of Robertson in 3A, and Tularosa was third. Questa was a dominant 1A-2A champion, 11 points over Texico, 165.07-154. Raton was third.

James Yodice covers prep sports for the Journal. You can reach him at jyodice@abqjournal.com or via X at @JamesDYodice.