The road was a bit rougher this year, but in the end the traditional powers still finished first.

Kamehameha won its fourth straight large-division championship and Radford claimed its sixth straight medium-division title at the Zippy’s/HHSAA Cheerleading Championships yesterday at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Playing to a raucous cheering section, the Warriors turned in a clean routine to top the eight-team field in the large division (11 to 18 members) with 330.5 points. Mililani placed second for the third consecutive year with 328.5 points and Waimea (286.5) took third.

"We were just happy that every single person on the mat did their job, and we can’t ask for anything else besides that," said Kamehameha coach Melissa Beimes.

After Mililani threw down the gauntlet with a sizzling routine that set the crowd of 1,636 abuzz, Kamehameha responded with clean full-up moves and tricky tumbling passes that delighted their boisterous backers.

"Coming back every year, we do feel the pressure from the other squads, but we’re confident in our routine and confident in ourselves to do well," said Cady Burnett, a senior Warriors base.

The Warriors, winners of seven of the past eight large-division state crowns, also overcame the loss of one of the team’s top flyers, sophomore Emily Luke, who dislocated her knee in practice on Oct. 29. Luke, wearing a heavy brace after surgery to repair her MCL and ACL, enthusiastically cheered on her teammates from the sidelines.

In the medium division (10 or fewer members), Radford rebounded from a shaky performance and second-place finish at last week’s OIA championships to top the nine-team field with 326 points. OIA champion Moanalua placed second with 316.5 points, followed by Kaiser (308) in third.

After a big bobble by the Rams in their opening sequence last week, Radford coach Bo Frank decided to "play it safe" this week.

"We watered down everything to the minimum 4.5 degree of difficulty and just executed cleanly," Frank said. "It’s not something we normally do, but with how the scoring was going this year, we figured we might as well give it a shot."

Half of Frank’s 10-member squad this year are freshman and sophomores, and the pressure of extending the Rams’ state title streak — stretching back to 2005 — led to big wobbles at both the OIA Western meet and last Saturday’s league championship.

"They were stressing about the difficulty of the routine in the past two competitions, so you could just see the difference tonight," Frank said. "They just took the floor with real confidence. Execution-wise, they did an awesome job tonight."

With the lower degree of difficulty, Frank had his team focus on fundamentals and timing in practice this week to impress the judges.

"We just worked really hard in cleaning up the little things," he said.

"We came back strong, and I’m so proud of everyone," said Landace McBrayer, a senior Rams base and co-captain.

"We know we can do everything in the routine," said McBrayer, who last week shrugged off a black eye after catching an inadvertent elbow from a dismounting flyer in practice. "It’s just going out there and leaving our hearts on the floor."

The Rams will be right back to practice today to ramp up the difficulty again in preparation for the National Cheerleading Association championships Jan. 8-9 in Dallas. Radford will defend the NCA coed title it won last year.

Kamehameha will compete at the Universal Cheerleading Association National High School Cheerleading Championships on Feb. 12-13 at Disney World in Orlando, Fla. The Warriors won the varsity medium-division title last year, but this year will compete in the small division.