Montclair Cheer and Dance Teams Win National Titles

As defending D3 champions, the Montclair State University Coed Cheer Team knew their competitors at the National Cheerleaders Association & National Dance Association College Nationals in Daytona Beach were gunning for them. They rose to the challenge, winning back-to-back championship titles in the Advanced Small Coed Division 3 competition and returned to Montclair with towering trophies to add to their collection.

Montclair’s Dance Team also finished first in D3 Team Performance, bringing their number of wins to three (2018 and a virtual win in 2021). The team also finished second in D3 Jazz, and the Intermediate Small Coed D3, which included mascot Rocky, placed sixth at the mid-April event. 

“These two programs are becoming Division III powerhouses,” says Montclair’s Coordinator of Intramural and Club Sports Kyle Bianchi, adding that he admires how much the teams support one another. “This is special. We traveled with a group of 65, and to do that with such ease and success is really a testament to their professionalism as young adults.”

“It’s an overwhelming feeling knowing how hard it was for us to make it to Daytona, and we just won back-to-back, it feels like a fever dream,” says junior cheerleader Shayla Carthon.

It was also a sweet win for first-year cheerleader Paul Bonilla. “It doesn’t feel real,” says the sophomore Exercise Science major.

Carthon, also an Exercise Science major, estimates she’s been thrown into the air thousands of times since cheerleading practice began last August. She and other team members performed “the shotgun,” which involves getting tossed high up into the air, backwards and being caught by second-level cheer team members who are standing on the shoulders of other cheerleaders. It was a new move added to the team’s stunts this year.

The second win in as many years made getting accidentally kicked in the head, a scar on her arm and nearly dropped by spotters worth it, Carthon says. “I just like the performance aspect of it. You have the competitiveness, but the physical and mental performance is where I really show.”

The shotgun requires trust all around. “I have to trust that they catch me, and I also have to trust that they throw me in the right direction; they also have to trust me to make sure that I’m not going over [too far] or going forward,” Carthon says, smiling. “What fun.”

Montclair was the D3 team to beat. “Everybody wanted to take us down this year,” Bonilla says, adding, “Now, we’ve really got a big target on our backs.”

Jumping into the cold water at Daytona Beach was the sweetest dip for senior Dance Team members  Inez Rodriguez and Jenna Lipari Pazienza.

“We celebrated by running in the ocean with the cheer team with our costumes on, which we’ve been looking forward to since our freshman years,” adds Lipari Pazienza, an Accounting major who will return for an MBA from the Feliciano School of Business as part of the 4+1 program. The cold plunge is tradition for dance and cheer teams from across the country after winning the top spot in their respective divisions. 

While roommates Rodriguez and Lipari Pazienza have been on the dance team since their freshman year, “This was our first time going to Nationals. We were on the team when they won virtually but it wasn’t the same experience at all. Going to Daytona and hitting that stage with all the lights for the first time – and last time – was honestly an experience that I’ll never forget,” says Lipari Pazienza. “I wish I could relive it every day.”

Rodriguez, a Public Relations and Social Media major, had a cheering squad that included her parents, sister, uncle and friends. “I had a lot of support there, and it just made it 10 times better knowing that, not only me but, a lot of the other girls have so much support.”

Lipari Pazienza adds: “We had support in Daytona and back home; it was everywhere.”

Smiling ear to ear, Rodriguez says: “We put in a lot of work this season so ultimately, getting to Daytona was a win for us, being able to win the national championship title was even better.”

 Story by Staff Writer Sylvia A. Martinez.  Photos courtesy of Montclair Cheer and Dance teams.