While the Minot High Cheerleaders are often close by to root on other teams to victory, the Magi cheer team continues to bring home plenty of hardware themselves.

The Minot High Cheer team finished in first place in the premiere event for a third straight year at the North Dakota Cheer Winter Cheerleading competition.

Seniors on the cheer team say being successful on the cheer team takes more hard work and dedication than people may expect.

“There definitely is a stigma around it. All they see is us doing little cheers and jumps on the sidelines, but they don’t realize how physically and mentally demanding the sport is, especially going into the competition,” Senior Emily Greathouse said.

“I think cheer is really stereotyped because they just see mean girls and stuff like that, but we actually put a lot of work into it,” Senior Gracie Thomas said.

“As far as competition, we put all of our work into it like we’re there for three hours a day practicing,” Thomas added.

MHS also finished first in the gameday category at state.