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SALT LAKE CITY — For the second straight year, Weber State's cheer squad was the force to beat at the national collegiate cheer and dance championships in Daytona, Florida.
Another powerhouse local program was nowhere to be found.
The Wildcats repeated as Division I small coed and large coed national cheer grand champions, racking up an event scores of 96.6333 in small coed and 98.4667 in large coed to earn the program's third grand national championship.
It's the eighth consecutive national title in Division I large coed for Weber State, and the second straight grand national championship for the Wildcats' spirit squad whose score of 97.6333 beat out Division IA champion Texas Tech (97.55) and small college champ Navarro (94.45) for the grand title.
Weber State has won the grand national title in large coed for three consecutive years, and four of the last five. The Wildcats also won national championships in 2009, 2017, 208, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 under head coach Summer Willis, along with small coed grand championships three times.
More impressive, Willis told KSL.com, is that the cheer squad did so after facing "several devastating injuries" in the months and weeks leading up to nationals. But it didn't slow them down; the Wildcats just adapted.
"They handled the adversity and challenges with grace and grit," Willis said. "I think the repeat is possible because of the legacy that was built by those that came before and the commitment each person has to the program and each other."
The partner stunt duo of Hailkey Smith and Joshua Hill also repeated as individual NCA champions, marking the sixth straight year a partner stunt title has been won by a Weber State pair.
The cheer squad also wasn't alone in elite-level victories during the combined National Cheer Association and National Dance Alliance championship weekend.
Weber State's dance company was also named grand champions in jazz after the Wildcats posted a score of 98, the best of the 24 schools in Division I that also held off Division IA champion Boise State.
The Wildcats then posted a 92.3429 in hip hop to win Division I for the fifth time and third in the past five years under coach Erica Jordan. Boise State won Division IA hip hop with a competition-high score of 94.286, and Alma College took home the grand championship after winning Division III.
Meanwhile, the 26-time national champions from BYU were nowhere to be found.
The Cougarettes were scheduled to embark on a sold-out cruise sponsored by the athletic department, where they were set to perform three times for a group on a $500 per guest trek from the shores of Los Angeles to Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Other BYU officials scheduled to take part in the cruise included head football coach Kalani Sitake, athletic director Tom Holmoe, and a host of former BYU stars including Jimmer Fredette, Jim McMahon, Austin Collie, Jamal Willis and Chad Lewis, among others.
During the cruise, the Cougarettes performed on the main stage, while also providing dance clinics to youth patrons. So the team opted to forego the national championships, school officials confirmed to KSL.com.
The cruise left Los Angeles April 11 and was scheduled to return stateside Friday.
BYU had finished first in both jazz and hip hop in their division for each of the past three seasons, and won seven combined national titles in the last four years in jazz and hip hop before opting out of NDA nationals for the first time in more than 25 seasons.
BYU did send the university's cheer squad to the joint national championships, where the Cougars earned a first-place citation in Division IA game day with a score of 92.1083.
BYU also finished fourth overall in Division IA advanced small coed with a total score of 92.5667.
Utah Valley won the Division I gameday category with a score of 99.6042. Salt Lake Community College added a fourth-place finish in advanced large coed, junior college with a score of 78.4292.
In dance, USU-Eastern finished second among junior colleges in jazz with a score of 91.31.43, and second in hip hop with a score of 85.4571.
2025 NCA & NDA Nationals
Final results
Here are the full results from the 2025 NCA and NDA college nationals held April 10-12 in Daytona, Florida.
