Photo courtesy of Desiree Troutner Warren’s cheerleaders competed in the PIAA Championships over the weekend at War Memorial Arena in Johnstown.

JOHNSTOWN — The District 10 small school champion Warren High girls competitive spirit program recently competed in the PIAA Championships at War Memorial Arena in Johnstown.

Despite winning the district title, the Lady Dragons initially did not qualify for the state competition since only the top 3A school (McDowell) advanced.

Their luck changed upon learning another Pennsylvania district had not used all their bids, then the call came in — they were going to states.

The Dragons took the opportunity and put forth their best routine over the weekend. With the 41 AAA small varsity schools being split into two groups, they had to finish in the top 11 in their pod to advance to the semifinals. Executing a routine score of 67.6 was unfortunately just 1.4 points shy of advancing from the preliminaries to the semis. Of the 41 AAA small schools that competed, the Dragons had the 22nd best score in the competition. Canon-McMillan High School out of Canonsburg won the 3A small varsity title.

“We had a lot to celebrate about our performance,” Warren head coach Melissa Feaster said. “This was the best performance Warren has had at the state championships in a few years. We were one of five teams out of 41 teams competing in the 3A small division to have zero deductions. Last year, we moved to 3A. Many sports have five or six categories to classify the school size. Unfortunately, cheer has only two categories: 2A and 3A. This means we are competing against the biggest schools that have a lot of talent and resources at their disposal. Last year, we finished second to last in 3A small. This year not only did we have a great performance, we improved significantly from last year at states. I couldn’t be more proud of this team.”