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The Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (NEO) co-ed cheer squad and Norse Stars dance team returned to Miami victorious after competing in the United Spirit Association Collegiate Championships on Feb. 15-16. Under the direction of coaches Nita Hanes and Anna Hart, the NEO co-ed cheer squad won the Large Co-Ed 2-Year division, while the Norse Stars won the Hip-Hop 2-Year division. “We are speechless,” said Hanes. “We are so incredibly proud of our athletes. In our sport, it can be rare to hit a perfect routine and our teams were outstanding in both preliminaries and finals.”

In the Large Co-Ed 2-Year division, NEO Cheer earned 90.34 points in the final round, clearing their closest competition by nearly 4 points. In addition, the Cheer team was the highest scoring two-year team at the competition in both the Large and Small Co-Ed divisions as well as the fourth highest team among all two- and four-year competitors. The Norse Stars earned 85 points during the final round, unseating four-time champion Utah State Eastern by a single point to claim first. Their ranking also placed them fourth overall among two- and four-year colleges competing in the Hip Hop division.

After arriving at NEO in 2018, Hart and Hanes wanted give teams a chance to experience competition cheer. “We come from a competitive background,” Hanes said in 2018. “So one of our main goals is to give our cheerleaders and dancers a taste of what competition is like.” With a set a national competition championships now in hand, Hart noted that they plan to establish a pattern. “We look forward to this opening more doors for our program,” said Hart.

“Within hours of winning the competition, we had dozens of texts and e-mails requesting try-out information. We are excited to build our team and expand the disciplines where we can be competitive.” NEO Cheer and Norse Stars are preparing to host a series of events, with the College Prep Clinic taking place on March 10 and the first Open Gym & Recruiting Night to take place on March 11. Videos of both performances are available on the Facebook page: NEO Coed Cheer & Norsestars. To find out more information on becoming a member of the NEO spirit program, contact Hart at Anna.Hart@neo.edu or Hanes at Nita.Hanes@neo.edu.