{"id":24509,"date":"2017-07-12T06:00:42","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=24509"},"modified":"2017-07-11T23:01:35","modified_gmt":"2017-07-12T04:01:35","slug":"governor-bill-haslam-tdec-present-austin-peays-dr-edward-chester-with-lifetime-achievement-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2017\/07\/12\/governor-bill-haslam-tdec-present-austin-peays-dr-edward-chester-with-lifetime-achievement-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor Bill Haslam, TDEC Present Austin Peay’s Dr. Edward Chester with Lifetime Achievement Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – Austin Peay State University student-athletes are no stranger to competition. Each year, the Governors compete to be the best on their team, the best in their conference and some even push to rank among the best in the nation.<\/p>\n

Very few have ever been able to say they took on the best in the world, but a trio of Austin Peay Cheerleading student-athletes got that chance recently \u2014 and they have the gold medals to back up their claim.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/a>

Three Austin Peay Student Athletes win gold for Team USA. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Austin Peay student-athletes Raquel Black, Johan Hensen and Erica Lester joined an elite group of athletes from universities across the country in representing Team USA at the International Cheer Union\u2019s (ICU) annual World Cheerleading Championships, held in April in Orlando, Florida, at Disney\u2019s ESPN Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

The first ICU World Championships since the sport\u2019s governing body received recognition by the International Olympic Committee in 2016, the global event welcomed over 2,500 athletes and 70 countries to determine the world\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really even know how to explain it…(the World Cheerleading Championships) has always been a dream for us because it\u2019s the top of the mountain in cheerleading,\u201d Hensen said. \u201cTeam USA was looking for people who could represent the country the way it should be, and to even be considered for the team was (incredible).\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Austin<\/a>

Austin Peay Cheerleaders<\/p><\/div>\n

The trio of Austin Peay athletes earned their spots in January, when they attended national tryouts. The nation\u2019s best cheer athletes put their skills on display, with Hensen, Black and Lester earning their spots alongside athletes from major universities including the University of Alabama, University of Louisville, University of Kentucky, Oklahoma State University and Texas Tech University.<\/p>\n

Hensen, who joined Black as members of Team USA\u2019s National Coed Team, said the pressure to represent his country was different from his experience as a high school or University cheerleader.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, cheerleading started off in the United States, and our coaches reminded me that we have a reputation to uphold,\u201d Hensen, a senior engineering technology major, said. \u201cWe kind of invented the sport, so when we go to the world championships, it was on us to say to the rest of the world, \u2018hey, this is who we are.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Hensen and Black did just that, as Team USA showed its skills in front of the world, earning the highest marks for their performance and edging out Chinese Taipei and Finland on the medal podium. The impact of their performance, Black said, became quickly apparent as Team USA received their gold medals and earned the opportunity to have the national anthem played for those in attendance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was crying on the podium when I heard the national anthem played,\u201d Black, a senior graphic design major, joked. \u201cIt was our first win at this level, so it really meant so much. My family was in attendance, so I just immediately started crying when I saw them and heard the anthem start to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

A transfer student from Davenport University in Michigan, Lester had prior national championship runs in both high school and college. Those experiences served her well as she joined squad mates from around the country on Team USA\u2019s National All-Girls Team.<\/p>\n

[320left]Like their coed counterparts, Lester and her all-girls teammates held off Finland and Canada to also earn gold at the event \u2014 Team USA\u2019s 11th<\/sup> consecutive gold medal in all-girls competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve won in Daytona (at the Collegiate Cheer & Dance Championships) and I\u2019ve won at stunt cheerleading nationals, so I\u2019ve had two opportunities to feel a big win, but \u2018worlds\u2019 was way different,\u201d Lester, a senior nursing major, said. \u201cEverything was at a totally different level, from the intensity of the competition to the level of preparation that went into it, but I think that roller coaster was what made everything worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the championships at an end, Austin Peay\u2019s trio of gold medalists are back in the gym with their Governors teammates as they prepare for the 2017-18 season. All three have at least one more year to represent their University \u2014 and maybe one more chance to represent their country at the 2018 World Cheerleading Championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get a lot of opportunities through Austin Peay that I don\u2019t think we would not get at other places,\u201d Hensen said. \u201cNow that I\u2019ve been able to think back on the event, this was really an amazing experience to be able to represent our country as members of Team USA.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on Austin Peay Cheerleading, visit www.letsgopeay.com<\/a>, or follow the team on Instagram @austinpeaycheer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University student-athletes are no stranger to competition. Each year, the Governors compete to be the best on their team, the best in their conference and some even push to rank among the best in the nation. Very few have ever been able to say they took on the best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[23,2230,4164,3907,262,825,30620,30619,21340,9112,30618,30621,30623,11994,2871,19861,30622],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-6nj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24509"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24509"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24510,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24509\/revisions\/24510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}