Head coach Tiffany Vining’s five years spent building the Gilbert High School competitive cheer program finally paid off Saturday at Colonial Life Arena.

The Lady Indians finished state runner-up to Wren at the S.C. High School League Class 3A finals.

Gilbert actually tied the Upstate score for 1st place with 276 points. However, the Lady Hurricanes won the tiebreaker 471-459 to take the top trophy.

The Lady Indians improved upon their third place finish at the qualifier with their best showing in program history.

“We worked really hard,” she said. “Our thought was we did well at qualifiers. We just wanted to come out here and give the best performance and just clean everything up and do what Gilbert does and that’s what we did. We worked all week. We just took every skill one skill at a time.”

Vining credited Gilbert athletics director Chad Leaphart for allowing her to set “expectations and standards for building a winning culture”. She also praised the four seniors for providing leadership and hopes it encourages the aspiring future team members currently on the elementary and middle school.

Brookland-Cayce and Gray Collegiate also participated at the Class 3A final. Full results will be posted at schsl.org following the conclusion of Classes 4A and 5A.