HEMPFIELD TWP — 10-for-10.

Butler’s competitive cheerleading squad extended its perfect run in qualifying for the PIAA Competitive Spirit Championships by placing ninth overall among 18 Class 3A squads Saturday at the WPIAL Championships.

The Golden Tornado were the only coed squad in the field, thus claiming that trophy for the second successive season.

Class 3A champion Hempfield hosted the WPIAL event.

“It’s tricky for us because everything is based on your total points scored as a team,” Butler coach Kristin Karam said. “Being coed, our stunts are radically different. An all-girls team usually uses two or three bases. As a coed team, we use one.

“Our top girl gets way up there, fully extended.”

The top nine WPIAL Class 3A teams qualify for the PIAA Spirit Championships, which take place Jan. 27-28 in Hershey. Class 3A also received the wild-card berth for PIAA qualification, though the Tornado didn’t need that extra position in the standings.

Mars girls, in just their second year of resuming its competitive cheer program, also qualified for the PIAA competition. The Planets advanced to the PIAA meet only once before, during the 2015-16 season.

Mars did not have a single point deduction during the WPIAL competition.

Butler has 18 on its coed team, including three boys. The Tornado lost 10 members of last year’s squad to either graduation or decisions not to return.

“We’re the only coed team on the western side of the state,” Karam said. “At the PIAA competition, we’ll be going up against other coed teams from out east. It will be interesting to see how we stack up.

“We have a fairly young team this year and I give credit to our seniors for leading the way. They helped keep our inexperienced squad members focused and hungry.”

Butler’s three seniors are Anna Munko, Matt Davis and Madison Varner.

“This year is different in that we usually have 12 seniors or more,” Munko said. “A lot of the cheerleaders this year are going through this for the first time. We wanted to make sure they knew what it takes to get through this, because there are so many good teams.”

Butler is the WPIAL’s only competitive cheer program to qualify for all 10 of the PIAA Competitive Spirit Championships.

“It was very important for us to continue that legacy,” Davis said.

The Tornado’s path to success hasn’t been exactly smooth this season.

“We’ve had people out at different times,” Munko said. “We’ve had concussions and some were out sick. There’s been practices where we didn’t have a full lineup and couldn’t practice the routine completely.

“I was worried for a while, nervous about how this might turn out. We didn’t want to be the senior class that let the program down. But we all bonded really well and worked well together.”

Davis said getting back to the PIAA event was critical this season because of the youth on Butler’s squad.

“The freshmen and sophomores, this being their first time, needed to experience this,” he said. “I’m proud to be one of the senior leaders on the team. This season has been different in so many ways.”

Karam was happy to see the unit rise to the occasion.

“Whether you're coed, all girls, whatever, you need to execute,” she said. “We’ve won some tournaments, but when the lights go on at these (WPIAL and PIAA) events, there’s nothing like it.

“Everyone responded and performed. I can’t say enough for our three seniors. They brought this team along.”

Each routine lasts two minutes, 30 seconds. Any tie past that results in penalty points.

While Munko admitted to feeling a bit stressed about how “a bunch of freshmen and sophomores who aren’t used to this” would perform, she enioyed the ride regardless.

“I just love this sport ... and I’m so proud of my team,” she said.

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