• Timothy Rowher
• The Daily Nonpareil
• March 12, 2025

Three cheers — as in three-peat — for the Iowa School for the Deaf cheerleaders.

The five-member squad recently finished first among seven schools at the Great Plains Schools for the Deaf Cheer Championship held in Arkansas. It was the third straight year the cheerleaders won that event.

“I was excited and nervous,” senior Ashley Vera Nieto told The Nonpareil. “I knew we had a great challenge, but I also knew we could do it.”

Fellow member Kaitlyn Johns, a junior, expressed that same confidence.

“I was nervous, but I knew our team could do it,” she said. “I was so happy for my team and myself and my school.”

The other members of the squad are juniors Rifenta Kisichy and Kailani Mefy as well as sophomore Amiya Wood. They’re coached by Renca Dunn and Megan Shama.

At that event, held at the Arkansas School for the Deaf, the squad won first place by having the highest combined score from a cheer routine and a dance routine, Dunn said.

What’s more, the girls, who are also basketball players, helped that team to second place in that championship event.

Since they can’t rely on auditory cues, the girls depend on feeling the vibrations from the beating of a drum to keep them in sync in practicing their cheer routines.

“We can feel that rhythm,” Ashley said.

This past weekend, the cheerleaders went after an even bigger prize: a national championship.

The squad was among 12 schools at an annual national event held this year at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.

It was the school’s third trip to nationals, and it once again finished third in its division — the same position as in the past two years, too — Dunn said.

“At least, we’re not going down in the standings,” she said.

Like at the conference event, the girls performed a cheer and a dance routine at the nationals, she said.

“We have so many talented cheerleading teams around the country,” she said. “It’s good, healthy competition.”

Rifenta was named an all-star, an award for all-around performance, Dunn said.

During the school year, the cheerleaders usually practice three times a week, she said.

“I am so proud of them,” Dunn said. “They have worked so hard.”

If next year’s squad makes to the championship again, they won’t have to go far.

“Next year, we will host the national event,” Dunn said. “That is great news.”