{"id":15245,"date":"2025-12-13T23:12:45","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T06:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-fifth-place-finish-leads-area-cheer-squads-at-state\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:46:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:46:43","slug":"mancos-fifth-place-finish-leads-area-cheer-squads-at-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-fifth-place-finish-leads-area-cheer-squads-at-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos\u2019 fifth-place finish leads area cheer squads at state"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=834419f1-c1cf-50c6-884c-8f5e590a8d93&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2527\" alt=\"The Dolores cheer team performs at the Mancos Cheer Showcase on Monday evening at Bluejay Fieldhouse. Ben Bradley\/Special the The Journal\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">The Dolores cheer team performs at the Mancos Cheer Showcase on Monday evening at Bluejay Fieldhouse. Ben Bradley\/Special the The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>DENVER \u2013 After a semester of hard work, the CHSAA spirit championships wrapped up, showcasing the state\u2019s top teams in six categories.<\/p>\n<p>Mancos, Dolores and Montezuma-Cortez High School competed at the Denver Coliseum \u2013 Mancos in Co-Ed and Dolores and Montezuma-Cortez in Cheer \u2013 each aiming for strong results.<\/p>\n<p>The Bluejays, led by a senior-heavy squad, entered confident after winning their region and impressing at the Mancos Cheer Showcase earlier in the week.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday afternoon, head coach Megan Daves\u2019 team posted an impressive score of 69.35 \u2013 a mark that would have secured a top-three finish in the 2A\/3A Co-Ed division and a finals berth. But deductions lowered the total to 63.35, placing Mancos fifth and just outside the finals.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier that morning, Dolores competed in the 2A Cheer division. Head coach Melissa Herrera\u2019s squad scored 51.95, good for sixth place and three spots better than last year. For half the team, it was a first state appearance. With no seniors, the Bears\u2019 outlook continues to rise.<\/p>\n<p>Montezuma-Cortez High School also performed Friday morning, earning 58.05 under head coach Emily Baumgartner. Like Dolores, the Panthers featured no seniors and many newcomers, finishing 10th in 3A Cheer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had to redo our routine, but the girls have been hitting it,\u201d said Baumgartner, noting her team\u2019s on-the-fly adjustments since learning the routine in August.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust getting the state experience gives our girls a reminder of why we push ourselves so hard,\u201d added Baumgartner.<\/p>\n<p>Area programs are trending upward, aiming for results reminiscent of Dove Creek\u2019s past state titles. \u201cIt\u2019s about consistency, from the coaches, from the girls \u2013 that and having youth and middle school programs is what\u2019s leading this sport into growing,\u201d Baumgartner said of cheerleading\u2019s growth in the Four Corners.<\/p>\n<p>CHSAA\u2019s spirit championships feature six categories \u2013 Cheer, Game Day, Co-Ed, Pom, Jazz and Hip-Hop \u2013 across four classifications at the Denver Coliseum, held Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 11-13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bluejays match 2024 mark; Dolores, Montezuma-Cortez improve<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15245"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19556,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15245\/revisions\/19556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15245"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}