Whitehall High School's varsity cheerleading squad won the silver medal in the small division at the District XI cheerleading competition on Jan. 26 at Easton Area Middle School.

The Zephyrs' second-place victory earned them the right to compete at the PIAA State Cheerleading Championships in Hershey.

Whitehall cheerleading head coach Jean Marsteller said, " I am so excited to be a part of the first state competition. This team is so worthy of the honor because it is one of the hardest-working teams that I have coached. We had our worst competition season last year, so being District XI runners-up was awesome."

Wilson Area High School won first place, Bethlehem Catholic was third, and East Stroudsburg South placed fourth in the division. Bangor, also in the small division, had dropped out of the competition days earlier.

"When they said we made it to states, I just started bawling, and our whole team started to cry," said Whitehall cheerleading captain, Kelsey Magilton.

Whitehall's two-and-a-half minute routine began with a jump sequence, followed by standing tumbling. The Zephyrs' first stunt was a switch-up to a heel stretch to a yo-yo out the front. The flyer then did a back handspring into the bases , going up to an arabesque.

Running tumbling and a pyramid preceeded the cheer portion of the routine, which included signs. A cheer stunt, dance, and a second pyramid concluded the routine.

"We had the routine choreographed in mid-September, but we switched some of it to make it more difficult in December," Magilton said.

Although the Zephyrs had some missteps, the squad recovered quickly.

"I'm just proud we didn't let the falls go to our head and have a good attitude about it," Magilton said.

Whitehall's varsity cheerleaders include Magilton, Jenna Bowman, Kelsey Millets, Nicole Piesly, Alexa Murray, Cora Peters, Alexis Freedman, Alyssa Boyer, Alyssa Feher, Taylor Beer, Alyssa Holland, Kayla Koehler, Kali Heffner, Caitlyn Gartner, and Ashley Stutz.

Regarding the state competition, Magilton said, "I'm looking forward to showing everyone we can do it."