Stump competed for one of nation’s top cheer teams

0
1636

Kori (Dixon) Stump

Submitted photo

GREENFIELD — Team and tumbling were a very good combination for Greenfield’s Kori (Dixon) Stump.

Starting out as a young gymnast, Stump moved on to the sport of cheerleading as a student at Greenfield-Central High School.

Along with rooting on her classmates in football and basketball, Stump and the Cougar cheer team had their own successes in competitions. They were state champions for the 2016-17 school year.

That thrill of competing and the chemistry built among teammates continued in college at Indiana Wesleyan University.

This past winter, Stump finished her four-year cheer team career as part of IWU’s runner-up squad at the 2022 NAIA National Competitive Cheer Championship held in Ypslanti, Mich.

Stump, who also participated in tennis and diving in high school, had been a part of a lot of successful teams. She was a varsity cheer team member for four years at G-CHS. After missing the state finals as a freshman, she was part of teams that placed in the top five in each of her final three years.

At IWU, the team placed 11th nationally during her freshman season. They did not have a competition in 2020, due to COVID. They were third in 2021.

“I loved it all, specifically, the physical aspect and tumbling,” Stump said. “I grew up a gymnast. It was nice to continue tumbling, but to do it in a group sport as opposed to an individual sport like gymnastics.”

“Once I got introduced to stunting through cheer, I fell in love with it and kept wanting to learn how to do more stunts,” she added. “That was a big part of it, but the thing that kept me coming back year to year was just the atmosphere of the team at Indiana Wesleyan. I have never been on a team like that where everyone is focused on the same goal and everyone cares about you as a person. It was a great atmosphere to keep coming back to every year.”

The IWU cheer team is broken down into two groups. The red team focuses on competitions and cheering at football games. The gray team is the spirit squad that cheers for and pumps up the crowd at IWU’s football and basketball games.

In competitions, squads are graded on a number of activities, including tumbling, stunting — that incorporates lifts and skills through the air — jumps, pyramids, a dance component and, of course, spirit.

This past season, IWU won all of its competitions until the national championship. In the two-day event, the Wildcats were third after Day 1 before moving up a spot during the final day. There were 15 teams at nationals.

They finished runner-up to Xavier (La.) University. The final scores were close. Xavier had 93.70. IWU finished with 92.58.

In 2021, IWU finished behind St. Ambrose (Iowa) and Oklahoma City. They beat both teams in 2022. St. Ambrose placed third (92.17) and Oklahoma City finished sixth (85.88).

It was the highest finish in IWU’s school history and the highest finish of any IWU athletic program during the 2021-22 school year. It led the Wildcats to their first NAIA Learfield Director’s Cup, awarded to the school with the top overall athletic program. IWU scored nationally in 15 sports.

Stump said she wasn’t sure the cheer team would be able to achieve their national tournament goal. They had obstacles along the way with eligibility issues as well as having to withdraw from a couple of competitions.

She said they competed in just enough events to qualify to vie for the Crossroads League championship, which they ended up winning to secure a spot in the national event.

“Leading up to it, no one really knew how the season would go,” Stump said. “There were points where we had hope that we were going to do great and there were points when we thought, ‘We’re not even going to make it to conference.’”

“Once we hit that routine (at the national meet) and it was over, there was a huge rush of excitement. Seeing all of our teammates being so excited was such a special feeling of ‘We did it!’ We accomplished what we set out to do. We overcame all these obstacles and we made it.”

Stump said her competitive cheer career is likely over, but she plans on going back to IWU as a proud alum and rooting on her former teammates.

The tumbling in a team setting was such an important part to her.

“The atmosphere was like no other team I have been on,” she said. “You have to put so much trust in to people when you’re catching people when they fall. It’s a very trusting and safe environment for teammates.”