Photo by Troy Schroeder, Memories in Focus: The Iowa Central cheer squad with their 2021 NJCAA national championship banner.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — For the eighth time in program history, the Iowa Central cheer program is national champions.

The Tritons claimed the NCA Intermediate Large Coed Open division title here on Friday, besting the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith and Tyler.

Iowa Central scored a 96.5667 in finals, finishing its routine without any deductions. In the prelims, the Tritons overcame a small mistake to record the highest score at 95.483.

“This group has been such an incredible inspiration to us,” Iowa Central head coach Amanda Murphy said. “They really are great student-athletes who aspire to be great people. They have put in so much work, countless hours of practice and sacrifice to get to this point.

“I couldn’t be more proud of them for what they accomplished.”

Each day, the Tritons performed a routine that lasted two minutes and 15 seconds. The day one score counted for 25 percent of the final tally with the remaining 75 percent coming from the second day.

“We performed at 11:28 a.m. and hit zero, which in our sport, is a good thing,” Murphy said. “That means you hit all of your routine with zero deductions. It can still come down to the judges, but we felt pretty good with how we had performed both days.

“We didn’t get to perform in front of large crowds like we typically do each year, so there were plenty of nerves with how we would perform. We had one small mistake, but that was it. Everything else we hit spot-on.”

Earlier this school year, the program was derailed by COVID-19, leaving the team in quarantine for much of the fall. That adversity, though, only helped to fuel their desire to achieve greatness on the national scene.

“The sacrifices that everyone involved with this program went through, that’s what makes this so rewarding,” Murphy said. “Just the fact that they stuck with it through quarantine, isolation, 20 days of non-contact in a sport that relies heavily on contact to prepare; that really says so much about the character of each and every single individual.

“They continued to sacrifice throughout the rest of the year by remaining smart and staying healthy. They were determined to achieve this moment.”

COVID was far from the only hurdle that this group had to overcome. In 2019, a member of the team, Rodney Anderson, passed away. Anderson was part of the 2018 squad that claimed the first NCA college national championship.

“The third-year athletes have really had to overcome so much adversity,” Murphy said. “They lost a teammate and friend, and they lost out on the 2020 season due to COVID. We really wanted to perform well for them and give them that experience that we talked about when recruiting them.”

The Tritons have also claimed six other national titles under Murphy’s guidance.

Murphy is assisted by Mitch Murphy, Liza LoVan and Mindy DeBaun.