Tumbling, stunting and cheering led to smiling, screaming and placing.

Oak Park Cheer competed at the 2019 CIF Southern Section/Ford Traditional Competitive Cheer Championship on Jan. 12, winning third place out of the 14 teams in Division 3A.

This was the first year that CIF held a cheer championship since it was the first year that competitive cheer was acknowledged as a CIF sport.

Junior Bella De La Torre wrote to the Talon that she was happy with the team’s ability to pull together for the competition and place well. De La Torre has been on OPC for three years but has cheered competitively for 10 years.

“I think OPC will go to another tournament next year, but I’m not sure if it will be the same or not,” De La Torre wrote. “I hope that we can progress each year and continue to build on Oak Park Cheer’s legacy.”

Varsity cheer captain and senior Emme Creager mentioned that it was really exciting to place third and that cheer coach John Lopez was “jumping up and down as usual.”

“This was a HUGE accomplishment for Oak Park cheer as we have never competed and we managed to beat many schools/teams that have been competing for multiple years!” Lopez wrote to the Talon. “Oak Park put on an amazing performance!”