For the six seniors on CNU's competitive cheerleading roster, it was time for redemption. Two years ago, the Captains had won the National Cheerleaders Association College National Championship. Last year, they finished third.
Of course, there's no shame in third place in a national event. But that only made CNU more determined to return to Daytona, Fla., and win another championship trophy.
Mission accomplished. With a final-round score of 96.2199, the Captains emerged from a tie for second to win the Intermediate All-Girls Division-III finals on April 11 — their second championship in three years.
"This one, I think, meant more than 2024 because the competition this year was even tougher," CNU coach Erica Flanigan said. "Last year, we placed third out of 18. That was still great, but we were super, super hungry to do what we did in 2024 again.
"This year has been all about preparation for anything and everything that could happen and preparing harder than we ever had before. We've worked tirelessly this year and it's honestly been so fun because for the team as a whole, last year fueled our fire to put even more into what we were doing for this season."
When Flanigan mentioned "anything and everything that could happen," in this particular case, that included wind and rain hitting Florida's east coast. That led to some challenging logistic issues.
"We had a little bit of a chaotic trip," Flanigan said. "There was hurricane-like weather down there, so they ended up pushing back the competition a day. We had travel arrangements to come home on one of the days that they pushed the competition back to.
"We had to stick around in Daytona an extra day or two. But we had some extra practices and to keep the team rolling and excited about everything."
Flanigan, who graduated CNU in 2003 with a degree in government, just completed her 20th season as the head cheerleading coach. She also runs Fame All-Stars in Yorktown.
The Captains' cheerleading roster has 48 athletes. Most you'll see on the home sideline at TowneBank Stadium in football season. Twenty athletes were on the competition team with 18 taking the mat.
In addition to NCA championships in 2024 and '26, CNU won four national titles in the College Open — 2019, '18, '17, and '14. The Captains' first appearance in the NCA College National Championship was in '24.
That began their run of two national titles in three years. And it was a battle.
In the prelims, CNU was one of six teams with no deduction points and its score of 86.0667 was just behind North Central College's 86.5. In the finals, the Captains had only a .25-point deduction, a full point less than North Central.
Still, Flanigan didn't know what to expect from the judges.
"Sometimes you know if you hit a great routine and another team had a mistake what the score grid looks like," she said. "And you ultimately have a good feeling. But we had no idea as we had a small deduction as well. I felt like we were the strongest, but in cheerleading, you never know.
"But when they called 'champions,' it was the best moment ever. Our seniors especially were excited. They had been in the program four years and they'd been giving so much to the team. And after last year, this was really a redemption year for them."
All along, Flanigan stressed preparation.
"I told them in the fall, 'By March, my goal is for you to be bored with what we're doing,'" she said. "We should be so near-perfect and effortless that we're almost board. And by March, they were crushing routines and practices. We had to find new ways to spice practice up.
"It felt so good going into the competition, like 'We've done everything we can, we've left no stone unturned.' If we didn't get the outcome we wanted, it wouldn't be for a lack of preparation. We could walk away knowing we'd done our best."