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Warriors Finish Runner-Up at GPAC Championship; Jesse Named Cheerleader of the Year
Posted: Mar 06, 2026

Warriors Finish Runner-Up at GPAC Championship; Jesse Named Cheerleader of the Year

Results

ORANGE CITY, Iowa — Midland University traveled to Orange City, Iowa, to compete in the Great Plains Athletic Conference Championship on Friday evening. After two rounds of performances, the Warriors finished as runners-up behind three-time defending champion Northwestern College while also earning GPAC Cheerleader of the Year and Co-Coach of the Year honors.

Midland started strong, earning a high score of 88.85 in the preliminary round, with Northwestern close behind at 87.93 and Doane at 86.85. The Warriors followed with a solid finals score of 89.60.

With the final score calculated as 25% from the preliminaries and 75% from the finals, Midland finished with an overall score of 89.41.

Northwestern, which trailed Midland after the preliminary round by 1.02 points with a score of 87.93, improved by 2.15 points in the finals to secure a final-round score of 90.08 and an overall score of 89.54, edging the Warriors by 0.13 points. Midland claimed the runner-up finish for the third consecutive year.

Haley Jesse earned GPAC Cheerleader of the Year honors, while head coach Kayla Rojas was named GPAC Co-Coach of the Year, sharing the title with Northwestern head coach Taylor Decker. Tela Schwery and Jesse also earned first-team All-GPAC honors.

"These athletes have exceeded our expectations time and time again and today was nothing short of that!! We were so extremely proud of our two performances and the growth we have had this season! Additionally, I am very proud of Tela Schwery and Haley Jesse who both received 1st team all conference, and an extra shoutout to Haley who also won GPAC athlete of the year!  We hope their hard work doesn't go unnoticed and are hopeful to continue  our season a little longer!" commented head coach Kayla Rojas.

The Warriors will now await the release of the at-large bids for the NAIA National Championship as they look to make their eighth trip to the event since 2018. The NAIA national office is expected to announce the full list of qualifiers soon.