Winning is woven into the culture of the Kentucky cheerleading team. So when the Wildcats don’t reach their goal – a national championship – disappointment is inevitable.That was the case on Sunday evening, as UK fell short in its bid for an unprecedented 21st national championship.”I know we’re better than that, but today just wasn’t our day,” head coach Jomo Thompson said. “Hats off to the University of Alabama for taking that title.”Kentucky finished third at the UCA/UDA National Championships in Orlando, Fla., behind Alabama and second-place UCF. Thompson cited execution as the reason why the Cats couldn’t bring home their 16th championship since 1995 and second in a row, but a difficult routine still kept UK in the top three.”The competition’s tough, but I always tell the kids we’re our own competition,” Thompson said. “We compete against the UK teams in the past before and we just didn’t live up to that standard today.”UK will have to wait a year to reclaim its spot atop the world of college cheerleading, but the Cats have a history of responding when they don’t win the title. Each of the four times the cheerleading team has been beaten out for the championship since 1995, UK has won the title the following year.”We definitely have to come back stronger,” Thompson said. “That starts with getting some good recruits in here and using this lesson that we learned today and kind of letting it burn in our bellies and just using it as fuel for next year, to re-motivate us.”The Kentucky dance team, which also competed at nationals this weekend, will have plenty of motivation heading into next year as well having turned in one of its best performances ever. The Cats came in third in the Hip Hop competition behind only Cincinnati and UNLV. “I could not be more proud of these young ladies,” head coach Dawn Walters said. “This is such a positive and hard-working group of girls. Even after one-third of the team got the flu two days before we left, they continued to support each other and stay focused on our goal. I’m so excited that their hard work was rewarded. It’s been our goal to make top three and I am so proud.”The finish marks an improvement of two places from 2014.UK Athletics congratulates both the cheer and dance teams for their achievements this weekend!
3rd in the Nation in HIP HOP!!! #YES #UKDT #UKDTproud #UDAnationals #PROUD
A photo posted by UK Dance Team (@ukdanceteam) on Jan 18, 2015 at 7:20pm PST
A jam-packed routine from the University of Kentucky! #UCAnationals https://t.co/uEPuAOtMWl
— American Cheerleader (@cheerleadermag) January 19, 2015
