The Brock Badgers won their first gold medal in the All Girl Premier division at the ICU University World Cup Cheerleading Championship at Walt Disney World Resort on Jan. 18.
The Badgers recorded a score of 82 to overcome three other teams within striking distance of the All Girl Premier Championship: Northern Arizona University (79.50), Memorial University of NL (79.20) and Penn State (79.10).
"Hearing them announce the Brock University Badgers as the All Girl Premier Champions made me very proud," said head coach Tara Savoie. "Their skill set was fantastic, however it was only a day before taking the world stage that we truly became a team."
They also won silver in the All Girl Game Day Division.
The coaching staff saw glimpses of their chemistry leading up to Florida, however it wasn't until a day before their performance did the team truly come together.
"Their trust and belief in each other was there," said Savoie.
Brock's goal at the beginning of the season was to build off from where they finished last year. In 2019, the Badgers placed second behind Northern Arizona by a score of just 0.17.
The team trained tirelessly every day since the beginning of the new year.
"The time we spent together as a team really helped us to not only prepare for this event, but also allowed us to become closer teammates and build the trust factor which is so necessary in this sport," said co-captain Jaymie Wilkinson. "Even though we have so many first-year student-athletes on our team, everyone came in with prior experience competing at an elite level, which really helped us to be highly competitive at this competition."
Brock Cheer have collected a total of four medals — a gold, two silver and a bronze — since competing at their first ICU University World Championships in 2014.
Senior co-captain Natasha Fortuna has witnessed the team's growth since joining the team four years ago.
Brock didn't win a medal in Fortuna's first year, but the group continually motivated each other, worked hard and started racking up the medals.
"It took a combination of talent, hard work, and squad unity, but this team was able to get job done despite half of the girls only being in their first year," she said.
This season, Brock experienced an influx of first-year student-athletes joining the team.
"This season is a rebuilding year for the Badger team as half of our team is comprised of rookies," said Savoie. "We were fortunate because they came to Brock with a wealth of experience from the all-star cheer world, stepping into the Collegiate Premier division and being required to cheer is very demanding."
The team consists of seniors Aliesha Goulbourne, Peri Goodman and Fortuna.
Juniors include Wilkinson, Jena Berndt, Sabrina Trolio, Mackenzie Craig, Tricia Doma and Paige Shewfelt. Sophomores are Leah Weidner, Janna McQuade and Nicole Tihanyi. The freshmen are made up of Brianne (Brie) Arnold, Alexis Sykes, Natasha Pedersen, Leanna Paoletti, Jocelyn Navarro, Amber Behie, Sally Bellevue, Isabella Pucci-Schaefer, Gillian Morningstar and Mekaela Gonsalves.
Support staff includes Lorna Holland and Karen Wallace with team trainers Leona Noble and Gillian DiMaria. The coaching staff is led by Savoie and assistant coach Chuck Holland.
