Oak Park cheerleaders win bronze at world championships

A cheerleading squad from Winnipeg's Oak Park High School is celebrating a bronze-medal performance at an international competition.

The team returned home on Monday night, after securing third place in the large varsity non-tumbling division at the World School Cheerleading Championships in Florida.

The competition featured about 600 school teams from 10 different countries, competing in a variety of categories.

Oak Park member Emily Turgeon says the team was just happy to be at the invitation-only competition and never expected to win a medal.

"We were all shocked. We all started crying," she said.

"As soon as we didn't get called and knew we medalled, we all started crying. We were so excited."

Turgeon said the team put in a performance of a lifetime to win bronze in its category, which included five other schools from Canada and the United States.

"Before we went, we didn't have a very good performance at the mat competition," she said.

"So we went in and I don't think we expected to place, and then we did, so it came out of nowhere and we're so happy."

Also representing Manitoba in the championships was a team from Edward Schreyer School in Beausejour, Man. The team placed fifth in the medium varsity non-tumbling category.