RALEIGH — Last year, the St. Pauls cheerleading team represented both its community and Robeson County by winning a state championship.

Saturday, Robeson County saw two of its local cheerleading teams crowned as state champions.

St. Pauls repeated as champs, while Purnell Swett joined the Bulldogs with a championship of their own, at the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s State Cheerleading Invitational held at the Raleigh Convention Center.

“It was wonderful to be able to celebrate with my team and get first place,” Purnell Swett senior cheerleader Jadalyn Demery said. “It was amazing for us to be able to come together with such a routine. … It’s just a lot of hard work and dedication.”

Purnell Swett won the Gameday Non-Tumbling Coed title for Division I; St. Pauls won in the same format for Division II. The Gameday division entails a band chant, a situational sideline chant (i.e. “offense,” “defense,” etc.), a fight song and a cheer, with the team incorporating stunts, motions, jumps, etc., with no tumbling skills.

While both competed in coed divisions, Lumberton’s competed in Gameday Non-Tumbling Division I amongst other all-female teams. The Pirates placed third.

Purnell Swett had previously won at N.C. Cheerleading Coaches Association state competition, but never at the NCHSAA State Cheerleading Invitational.

“We’ve never come in first, this is our first time coming in first at this one,” Purnell Swett coach Chris McIntyre said. “We normally come in third or fourth, depending on how many teams there are.”

Winning a championship for the school was a big thrill for the team, Demery said.

“Being able to bring the trophy home to our school and show it off to everyone is a great feeling,” Demery said. “The school really doesn’t get championships that much, but being a cheerleader we were able to do that, so it’s a great feeling.”

Purnell Swett finished less than half a point ahead of second-place Cape Fear, with New Bern coming in third.

Purnell Swett team members include Alana Bullard, Londyn Clark, Demery, Jolana Hunt, Sarah Hunt, Matthew Lewis, Zoe Lowry, Alliyah Oxendine, Haylee Scott, Jada Sealey, Adara Smith and Ava Woodell.

Demery is the team’s only senior, and encouraged her teammates to not take the experience for granted going forward.

“It’s just showed me a lot about life, and how much dedication it takes to be able to attend practices and certain events, especially with school where we have pep rallies and all these other events, parades,” Demery said. “It’s just been an honor, honestly, to be able to cheer with Purnell Swett.”

The experience of winning the championship was not new for St. Pauls in a broader sense, but about half the team are first-year varsity cheerleaders who were not on last year’s championship.

“This season was different because we had a bunch of new people, and they had to learn everything that they never did before,” St. Pauls senior cheerleader Ny’Asiah Williams said. “It was harder because they were newer, but we did what we always did, came to practice and did what we had to do.”

The team also overcame “obstacles” throughout the season and in the week leading up to the competition, coach Tashira Patterson said.

“We had people who got sick, people who got the flu, deaths in the family, my heat went out — it was a whole bunch of stuff in the last week,” Patterson said. “But they were focused and locked in, and they wanted to repeat.

“There was a lot of pressure from the outside; some people were doubting again and some people were like ‘y’all have got to do it, y’all have to bring it back.’ So they were nervous, but they did everything they were supposed to do. We’ve sacrificed a lot of stuff to make sure that we did get first place again, so I’m really proud of that.”

While St. Pauls’ title last year came against teams they had competed against numerous times before, changing to a different division meant more uncertainty during the competition for the Bulldogs this year. St. Pauls finished less than one point ahead of runner-up Draughn, with Gray Stone Day School in a distant third.

“Honestly, it still hasn’t hit me,” Patterson said. “It kind of got real for us whenever they called the other teams, because they go last place to first place — and this was a new division for us … so we had never competed against those teams that we went again this year, so we didn’t know what they brought to the table.

St. Pauls team members include Savannah Curtis, Tyana Fairley, Emily Flores Cortez, Sha’Nia Graham, Trinity Green, Keshaunda Henderson, Jaela Jacobs, J’Lissa Leonard, Dashawn McDonald, Te’myhia Melvin, Patrick Mooney, Garden Orozco, Shy’Anna Pone, Jamaya Simmons, Williams and Addison Wilson.

For both teams, the championship was the result and reward after a lot of hard work throughout the season and beyond.

“It was really rewarding because of all the practices that we had; we had a lot of Saturday practices, and we don’t have a lot of space to practice because of other sports,” Williams said. “So to know that it paid off in the end was a good feeling.”