Marriotts Ridge cheerleading continues record run, wins fourth straight Howard County championship

Whatever pre-routine jitters there may have been, quickly disappeared once the Mustangs hit the mat on Tuesday at Oakland Mills. Marriotts Ridge executed its stunts and stayed clean throughout on the way to a team-score of 123.6 points that secured the program its fourth consecutive county title dating back to fall 2018.

This marks the first time any Howard County team has won four consecutive county titles since cheerleading officially became a varsity sport in the area in 2009.

Marriotts Ridge head coach Sugene Shin said that it’s the times the team has fallen short — placing second at both county championship competitions during her first year as coach in 2017-18 — that keeps them motivated and humble.

“In 2017 we felt extremely confident about where we were and then everything fell apart at counties and it was literally heartbreaking. So ever since that moment, we have never taken anything for granted,” Shin said. “And you know, winning a state title really doesn’t take any pressure off. If anything, it makes us have to push even harder because we have something we have to [defend].”

Pressure, though, isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

“For us, it’s pressure that we put on ourselves … pressure to keep getting better, to hit the best possible routine that we can,” said Mustangs’ senior captain Kristen Trainer. “Our pressure keeps us motivated.”

Scores were higher across the board at this winter’s competition, with second-place River Hill (117.8 points), third-place Reservoir (114.05) and fourth-place Long Reach (112) all improving their totals from the fall by at least two points.

Marriotts Ridge, which performed second-to-last, simply answered the challenge by upping its total from the fall as well.

The Mustangs got improved scores by cleaning up some “little fluff” things here and there, according to Batten. But it was adding a new skill in the elite section of the stunts that the three senior captains agreed made the biggest difference.

Instead of doing low-to-high power ups, the team instead executed a couple high-to-high tick-tock maneuvers that it had been practicing all winter.

“As we’ve gotten more comfortable performing, coach has continually made the skills harder,” senior captain Emma Clarke said. “This was probably our toughest routine yet.”

The Mustangs — along with River Hill and Wilde Lake (fifth with 109.85 points) — now advance to the 1A/2A West MPSSCC regional competition on Feb. 6 at Harford Community College. Reservoir is the lone qualifier from the county in the 3A/4A West region and the Gators will compete the same day at the same location.

Shin hopes that her Marriotts Ridge team stays hungry.

“I think it’s always hard to do something for the first time because you don’t really know if it’s truly possible. So in the fall, when they broke through that by winning regionals and then states … it was like they proved to themselves that they aren’t just a team that’s a filler,” Shin said. “Now that we’ve reached that level, though, the challenge is to maintain that hunger and desire so that we can get back to that point again.”

Team scores:

1. Marriotts Ridge, 123.6; 2. River Hill, 117.8; 3. Reservoir, 114.05; 4. Long Reach, 112; 5. Wilde Lake, 109.85; 6. Hammond, 109.25; 7. Glenelg, 108.85; 8. Mt. Hebron, 102; 9. Oakland Mills, 100.05; 10. Atholton, 96; 11. Howard, 93.4; 12. Centennial, DNC.