YPSILANTI, Mich. – The 2024 Nfinity NAIA Competitive Cheer National Championship began with Preliminary Round action on Friday evening inside the George Gervin GameAbove Center on the campus of Eastern Michigan. The 8th annual event, hosted by the Ann Arbor Sports Commission, saw Day One scores count for 25% of the combined total, leaving the last 75% of the score to be calculated from Saturday’s Finals performances.

Prelims Performance Highlights

• St. Ambrose (Iowa) leads the scores after Day One, looking to go back-to-back in the Battle For The Red Banner.
• Oklahoma City outpaces Xavier (La.) for second with a margin of only .01.
• Dickinson State (N.D.) was the fourth team to score in the 90's.
• Florida Memorial and Saint Mary (Kan.) made their NAIA nationals debut, the only two teams in the field to do so.
• Thirteen of the 15 teams who reached the championship this season also competed in the event last year. 
• Concordia (Mich.), Indiana Wesleyan, Missouri Valley, Oklahoma City, and St. Ambrose (Iowa) have qualified for the championship each season the NAIA has hosted the competition. 
• Cumberlands (Ky.), Dickinson State (N.D.), Florida Memorial, Indiana Wesleyan, Missouri Valley, St. Ambrose (Iowa), and Xavier (La.) did not receive any deductions.
• The teams will be back on the mat Saturday starting at 10:00 a.m. EST and will perform in reverse order of their scores today. Squads with lowest prelim score will perform first while the top score out of the first round will be the final performance.

Finals Performance Order

 1. MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.)
 2. Midland (Neb.)
 3. Georgetown (Ky.)
 4. Tennessee Southern
 5. Northwestern (Iowa)
 6. Cumberlands (Ky.)
 7. Florida Memorial
 8. Missouri Valley
 9. Saint Mary (Kan.)
10. Indiana Wesleyan
11. Concordia (Mich.)
12. Dickinson State (N.D.)
13. Xavier (La.)
14. Oklahoma City
15. St. Ambrose (Iowa)