Downey cheerleaders have been practicing their National routine for months and on Friday, Feb. 23, the freshman and junior varsity team performed, while on Saturday, Feb. 24 the varsity team showcased their routine at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Freshman and member of junior varsity cheer, Alexa Tronosco speaks on what teams themes are going to be at Nationals.

“Since this is my first year, I’m not really sure what to expect from at Nationals, on Friday,” Tronosco stated. “Each team has a different theme; freshman team is dream girls, JV is Barbie and varsity is love.”

The three teams, freshman, JV and varsity all won first place in their National titles on Sunday, Feb. 25.

Varsity cheer member for two years, Breanna Aguirre, 12, talks about what her team has one in preparation to the National competition.

“I’ve been doing Downey cheer for fours years, and if we win on Saturday then some on us seniors will have three National titles,” Aguirre stated. “I think if we win it’ll be crazy because I’ll have two varsity titles and most teams don’t even make it to finals, even last night we had practice and were all pumped and ready.”

The Viking varsity team competed against 24 other high schools and private cheer corporations. The junior varsity team competed against six-eight schools and freshman against two.

Sofia Garcia, sophomore, and junior varsity cheer member speaks on what the teams win would mean to her.

“If we win this year it would mean a lot to me; last year a girl on the team got seriously injured, so JV wasn’t allowed to compete, [because] they didn’t have enough time to learn a whole new routine,” Garcia stated. “Our coach was really sad he couldn’t get to take his team with him, so I know it will mean alot not only the most to the girls but to the coach as well.”

All team members got large trophies that displayed the pride of their hard work. The highly anticipated annual Nationals are what they have been preparing for all school year long, and their results show this. Varsity performed at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Feb 24,  while JV and freshman presented their routines on Friday, Feb 23 in the early afternoon.  All three teams went to the convention center together for support.