The Minnesota Golden Gophers spirit squad had a very successful weekend at the 2025 UCA & UDA College Cheerleading & Dance Team National Championships in Orlando. The Gopher Dance team won their third straight Pom national championship while finishing second in Jazz in heartbreakingly close fashion. The Gopher Cheer team won the Small Coed Gameday Category on Friday night. It is the first ever national championship for the Minnesota Gopher Cheer Squad.
Friday night was the first night of competition and that is when the Gopher cheer squad won their title. They put up a score of 95.4333 in the semifinals to have the top ranking headed into the finals. Then in the finals they went even bigger putting up a score of 95.7667 to defeat San Diego State and Penn State for the programs first ever National Championship!
The Gophers were back at it on Saturday in the overall Small Co-ed Cheer competition. In the semifinals they scored a 84.9 which put them in third place headed into the finals. They would improve in the finals and post a score of 85 which would get them a second place finish, just behind Bowling Green.
Also on Saturday was the mascot competition. The mascot scoring is split between a pre-taped submitted video and the live act at the competition. Goldy was ranked fourth headed into the live act.
That's where he would finish behind the Cincinnati Bearcat, Smoky from Tennessee, and Aubie from Auburn.
The major favorites of the weekend was the Gopher dance team. Coming into the weekend they had won 22 National Championships and were the two-time defending Pom Champion. That streak would move to three in a row and 23 after the Gophers won the Pom competition once again.
But, for the second year in a row it would be a heartbreaking second place finish in the Jazz category behind Ohio State. Minnesota had the better score through the prelims and semi-finals but bobbled one lift in the finals performance and it was just enough to have the Buckeyes leap ahead of the Gophers 97.28 to 96.68.
Congrats to the Gophers for bringing home a pair of Nattys back to the Twin Cities!