Two weeks ago, as 38 Encore girls wrapped up competition season with the satisfaction of second place , only when they boarded the bus did they learn of astonishing news. They had won first place.

“We were satisfied with the second place we thought we had gotten, but the second Ms. Owen told us about the miscounting of points we were all screaming and crying,” sophomore Karinya Ghiara said. “We really felt like a family in that moment.”

After performing their hearts out at what is known to be their biggest competition, SoCal, the Encore girls happily accepted their second place trophy without much question. But, they were wrong. The team that everyone believed to have won actually received marks of a 1, which instead was read as a 19. Luckily this little error was soon caught, resulting in the entire Encore bus shaking out of control the whole ride home from pure delight.

“Even though at first we didn’t think we won, either way we were just so happy to know we tried our best,” freshman Kammy Carbone said.

Despite the joyous outcome, preparing for the competition proved to be just as important as the actual performance.

“All the hours spent perfecting our set were stressful and nerve racking at times, but more than anything really exciting to know we were going to have the opportunity to show people how hard we worked,” sophomore Livi Langen said.

Eight other schools gathered to compete, but they were especially determined to do better than the school who had beaten them in the competition the week before.

“It was a really good feeling to take the first place from the school we were most motivated to beat,” Ghiara said.

Winning the biggest competition of the year is an accomplishment not to be undermined. The Encore should be as proud of themselves as Carlsbad is of them.

“I couldn’t imagine a better way to end the competition season,” Langen said. “We really deserved this.”