April 25, 2002
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue cheerleading squad, which finished second in the nation in the National Cheerleaders Association competition on April 5, can be seen on a taped broadcast of the competition on Saturday, April 27.
The competition will be televised at 1 p.m. EST/CDT on CBS, including WLFI TV-18 in Lafayette.
The second-place finish was the highest ever for the Purdue squad. North Texas won the competition, held in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Purdue emerged from the preliminaries held the day before the finals in fourth place. At the time, coach Sue Bayley termed the preliminaries performance nearly flawless.
"The excitement our squad felt and expressed will come through in the show," said Bayley, a 1991 Purdue graduate and former Purdue cheerleader. "We consider our second-place finish a high point for the Purdue cheerleading program, but certainly not the highest we hope to achieve.
"I hope our fans will set their VCRs and watch us later if they can't be in front of the TV in the middle of the day Saturday."
In 2000, Purdue finished third in the finals and last year finished fifth.