Maxwell Cheer 2024 State Champions – Raton & Clayton Earn 3rd Place

By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media

The Maxwell Bears Cheer team brings home the blue Saturday April 6,  2024 as they bested 17 other teams in the Class A-2A NMAA State Spirit competition held in Albuquerque in the PIT on the campus of the University of New Mexico.

Coached by Celina Apodaca, the Bears (162.64) performed their routines almost flawlessly beating defending champion Questa Wildcats (155.2) by over seven points. Northern NM did very well this year as the top two teams were followed by the Clayton YellowJackets(153.53) who took third place in the competition. This state championship win is the first ever for Maxwell’s cheer program and only the third year they competeted.  Coach Apodaca is a former member of Raton Cheer who competed under Coach Linda Ortiz.

2024 A-2A NM State Spirit Championship Squad, Maxwell Cheer consisted of : Anita Hoy (11);  McKinsly Davis (11); Alexis Tate (11); Raven Valentine (11); Terrance Gallegos (10); Patricia Trotter (10); Iliana Gallegos (9); Paige Hoy (9); Lilly Tate (9); Jazlyn Berry (9); Brailyn Hoy (9); Leilah Duncan (8); Natalee Atler (8) with JayCee Apodaca serving as manager/music.

The returning Class 3A State Champs Raton Tigers battled a tough field of six other cheer teams this year and managed to pull out a third place showing. Ruidoso with a 20 plus member team won the state title this year with a 162.83 score. They were followed up by Cobre with a 158.63 score and Raton with a 151.6 total.  The teams were scored on a game day cheer and cheer with music.

Below are the scores for each team. The first number is the performance one score and the second one is for the second performance and then the total score.

Cheer 3A RUIDOSO               87.47 75.37 162.83
Cheer 3A COBRE                      85.43 73.2 158.63
Cheer 3A RATON                      83.07 68.53 151.6
Cheer 3A ROBERTSON           77.37 63.27 140.63
Cheer 3A TUCUMCARI             75.73 62.8 138.53
Cheer 3A THOREAU                73.23 61.83 135.07
Cheer 3A WEST LAS VEGAS   70.97 59.63 130.6

Cheer A-2A MAXWELL     82.37 80.27 162.64
Cheer A-2A QUESTA                82.9 72.3 155.2
Cheer A-2A CLAYTON       77.57 75.97 153.53
Cheer A-2A LORDSBURG         77.3 75.5 152.8
Cheer A-2A PECOS             79.97 72.17 152.13
Cheer A-2A FT. SUMNER.    81.43 69.1 150.53
Cheer A-2A ESCALANTE      77.2 73.27 150.47
Cheer A-2A TATUM                   76.1 74.3 150.4
Cheer A-2A TEXICO            75.03 72.73 147.77
Cheer A-2A CAPITAN          77.83 69.83 147.67
Cheer A-2A SANTA ROSA  81.17 64.77 145.93
Cheer A-2A TULAROSA      76.93 68.13 145.07
Cheer A-2A EUNICE              76.87 67.4 144.27
Cheer A-2A MCCURDY         72.43 67.37 139.8
Cheer A-2A MORA                     75.5 62.1 137.6
Cheer A-2A SAN JON.            73.47 63.63 137.1
Cheer A-2A CLOUDCROFT              75.8 0 75.8
Cheer A-2A MAGDALENA            73.23 0 73.23