by Kristian Lundberg
With a performance that outclassed their conference rivals, cheerleading won Bay States yesterday, punching their ticket to Regionals, which will be held later this month.

The squad scored 86 points at this meet, easily putting them ahead of second-place Framingham, which scored 80.5 and third-place Braintree, which finished with 78. According to senior Domenique DiDino, a captain with seniors Katja Hamler and Micayla Ross, the Tigers’ margin of victory was unusually large.

“Usually, you win by only a fraction of a point, so it was a very big difference,” DiDino said. “We were definitely way above the competition.”

DiDino attributed the team’s success to its confidence heading into the meet.

“We’d placed first in other competitions earlier in the season, so we were definitely confident,” she said. “In the last competition, the judges said we needed to do work only on minor things like voice, so our coach had us work on that.”

Up next for the Bay State champions is the Regional Meet Sunday, Nov. 13. Although the squad’s opponents are to be determined, DiDino said the teams would be stronger than those at the Bay State competition.

“We’re not positive of the teams we’ll face, but they’ll probably be other teams that won their league, like us,” she said.

“In practice, we’re going to work on more advanced tricks for our routines.”