Prairie Fire has been on an incredible hot streak these past few months. (submitted photo/ Lorena Willness)

By Nigel Maxwell

Cheerleading

Carlton student soars high after cheerleading team wins championship

Feb 6, 2023 | 5:00 PM

Update 8:12pm Monday: Prairie Fire’s bid was accepted and so they will compete in Florida in May.

Just days before her 17th birthday, Prince Albert’s Ava Woroniuk has received a huge lift.

The cheerleading team she is a member of, the Saskatoon-based Prairie Fire, placed first this past weekend at the Imagine Cheer and Dance Championship in Calgary.

Woroniuk, who attends Carlton high school, and also works part-time at SportChek, acknowledged her team won the last three competitions they’ve attended.

“My team has worked really hard so I was pretty confident going into [Calgary] but I also had some doubt in my mind,” Woroniuk confessed.

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The three-minute routine performed by the team, combines a mix of advanced acrobatics, lifts, and dance, and it’s all done in perfect synchronicity. Woroniuk explained they started working on it last fall and over the past few months have been adding to it and gradually making it more difficult.

The event on Saturday featured over 100 teams from across Alberta, B.C., and Saskatchewan and over 1,500 athletes. When asked why she thought her team stood out, Woroniuk replied her team had more riding on it.

“Most teams there were just there for a regular competition but we were there to make it something bigger,” she said.

With the win, the Prairie Fire earned the opportunity to compete at more national and international events. Late Monday night, the team received confirmation they had officially been invited to compete at an event in Florida in April. That means the team will be busy fundraising.

Prior to competing in Calgary, the Prairie Fire finished first at events the two months in Lloydminster and Warman.

Woroniuk’s mother Lorena Willness explained that prior to cheerleading, her daughter played minor hockey with her brothers.

“I thought it would be a quick cute phase. However as I watch what she and the other girls do and how intense it is, choreographed to seconds and inches. I’m constantly amazed,” Willness said.

Willness also noted her daughter travels to Saskatoon three times a week for practice, and persists even through injury.

“The lifts, jumps, splits, the mid air twists just all of it. It’s always amazing to watch a finished routine. I’m so proud of her and want people to know that cheer is a sport and these kids are true athletes,” she said.

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nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell