“We got that gold, we took it back!”

This was the yearlong rallying cry for the Chapin High School competitive cheer team.

It began not too long after the Lady Eagles finished runner-up to Lexington High School last November at the SC High School League Class 5A final held in Florence.

“The day after state, they had a meeting and we were determined that it was going to happen this year,” longtime Chapin head coach Vick Williams said. “But they’ve been practicing ever since then to get back. So it was a goal to get back.”

The daily regiment of finetuning the self-choreographic routines paid off this past Saturday at Colonial Life Arena.

Back in familiar surroundings, the Lady Eagles returned to their championship perch by winning the Class 5A title once again. In claiming a school-record 15th overall state title, Chapin scored a 349 to dethrone defending champion Lexington.

The Lady Wildcats finished 27 points behind the Lady Eagles for their fourth Class 5A runner-up trophy since 2016.

Other local teams who placed high were River Bluff in third place and Dutch Fork in sixth. Both Airport and Irmo were third and fourth, respectively, in Class 4A.

Gilbert Places Second

The Lady Wildcats were not the only state runners-up crowned this past weekend.

In the case of Gilbert High School, it actually finished tied with Wren for first place in the Class 3A final. A 5-score tiebreaker gave the Lady Hurricanes a 471-459 point advantage to claim the top prize.

Nevertheless, head coach Tiffany Vining took great pride in the accomplishment in her team’s highest finish since taking over in 2016.

“We worked really hard,” she said. “Our thought was we did well at qualifiers. We just wanted to come out here and give the best performance and just clean everything up and do what Gilbert does and that’s what we did. We worked all week. We just took every skill one skill at a time.”

Other Chronicle Country teams Gray Collegiate finished eighth and Brookland-Cayce finished 10th in Class 3A.

See more photos from finals on B4 and at www.lexingtonchronicle.com.