Scorpions Elite Cheer travelled to Niagara Falls this past weekend to compete in the 2016 National Championships. The Senior "Strike Force" team walked away with the first place trophy for their division, as well as "Grand Champ" honours for best overall score in their entire level. The Junior "Black Venom" team placed 3rd overall in their division, and Cambree Rigaux took first place with her solo routine.

The Cheer Evolution National Championships are a 3-day competition, held annually in Niagara Falls, ON. It is the largest cheer competition in Canada, with over 7,000 athletes competing in 365 teams from across the country. At Nationals, each team performs their routine twice, once each on Saturday and Sunday, with their final score calculated based on a weighted average of both scores.

Scorpions took 38 athletes to the competition, including the Junior Level 3 "Black Venom" team, the Senior Level 4.2 "Strike Force" team, and Cambree Rigaux, who competed in a Level 2 solo routine. Cambree, age 8, competed on Friday in the "Mini" individual specialty category, and placed first overall in her division.

Black Venom placed 3rd overall in their division, with a final score of 89.83%, less than half a point out of first place.

Strike Force won the Senior 4.2 division, which qualified them to compete for "Grand Champ", awarded to the highest overall score in each division, including all age brackets and team sizes. They placed first out of 34 teams, winning the Level 4.2 Grand Champ banner. Strike Force achieved the second-highest score of the entire competition, finishing second only to the fan-favourite Cheer Sport "Great White Sharks", an all-girls team from Ontario that is a 2-time winner of the international Cheerleading Worlds competition.

Tiffany and Andrew Recksiedler are owners of Scorpions Elite Cheer, and coach both the Junior and Senior teams. They were extremely pleased with how both teams performed this weekend.

"It was an experience that these athletes will never forget. Coming from a small-town gym, we didn't know how we would compare at the National level. We are just so happy that all the hard work these kids put in to the sport resulted in such a positive outcome. Truly a great feeling."