Bethpage, down a cheerleader, finishes second at states

SYRACUSE — When their group of 21 shrank to 20, the Bethpage cheerleaders had little time to adjust — eight minutes, to be exact.

An injury to one of the team’s cheerleaders in the preliminary round forced her from competing in the final round of the inaugural state tournament. Naturally, the Eagles were a little worried. OK, maybe a little more than a little worried.

“I was freaking out,” senior Lexi Brindisi said with a laugh.

But Brindisi — who shifted her position on the mat for the team’s routine — and the rest of her Bethpage teammates used that frenzied hype to their advantage. With an adrenaline-fueled effort, they dazzled the spectators at Onondaga Community College and earned second-place medals in Large Varsity Division II Saturday. And they did it with only that eight-minute warmup in between rounds.

“It was definitely surprising and hard,” Brindisi said. “But as a senior, I knew I had to step up. We all did.”

Brindisi and senior captains Samantha Hoenscheid, Shannon Diesel, Lauren Fowler and Danielle Cuozzo rallied the group. Despite competing down one cheerleader, they improved upon their fourth-place finish in the preliminary round.

“We had to change a couple of the sequences around,” said Christa Spano, who coaches Bethpage along with Jesica Lundberg. “They were definitely stressed. Warmups were tough. But they knew they had one last time on the mat together. And they gave it all they had.”

As the top-five finishers were being announced, the Bethpage cheerleaders heard their school’s name being chanted. They turned to see their friends from Plainedge standing for them.

“We just wanted to show them that we had their backs,” Plainedge junior Christina Labita said. “We wanted to support everyone from Long Island.”

It made Diesel smile: “That meant a lot,” she said.

The feeling was second to none for the Eagles.

“I’ve been cheering since I was five,” Hoenscheid said, “so now that it’s finally getting recognized as a sport, and that I get to be a part of the first state championships, that means so much.”

Added Fowler: “Last year we got fifth in the nation. I can say that being county champs and being able to compete as state finalists is equal or even a better feeling than that.”