Two successful cheerleading teams for the Bennett’s Creek Warriors began to show just how special they really are late last month.

The Junior Midget (ages 11-13) and Junior Pee Wee (ages 8-10) squads placed first and second in their respective divisions at the 2013 Mid-South Region Pop Warner Cheer and Dance Championships Nov. 29 in Raleigh, N.C.

These finishes guaranteed them qualification for the national championships, which start this week in Florida.

Both teams have the air of history-making about them.

“As a coach, this group amazes me,” said Chris Kreutter of her Junior Midget team. “I knew by the middle of August that I had a group that was capable of doing more than any group I’ve ever coached before.”

This marks the first time a Junior Pee Wee team has earned a trip to nationals in the 40-plus year history of the Bennett’s Creek organization.

“The whole experience has been amazing,” said Sherry Powell, who is in her first year as head coach of the Junior Pee Wee squad. “I was completely shocked and excited and just really, really happy for the girls that we have the opportunity to go.”

To get there, the teams had to place in the top two of both their local and regional competitions. The routines making such a high finish possible locally, however, would not have produced the same result regionally.

The coaches had to enhance the difficulty of the performances.

Both teams had the same amount of time to show the judges what they could do.

“They get two minutes and 30 seconds to perform what we’ve spent all season teaching them,” Kreutter said.

The routines were choreographed, featuring 90 seconds with music and 90 without.

The girls were judged based on their execution and technique in many different categories. They had to show synchronized and tightly-formed movement, with spirit.

The routines included jumps, dancing, cheering that includes movement and initiates a crowd response, tumbling and a pyramid sequence.

The Junior Pee Wee team had 12 performers and competed at the beginner level, with small teams. It was one of eight teams in the same division at regionals.

The Junior Midgets competed as a large team, with 25 performers, at the intermediate level. Since large teams are somewhat scarce these days, it was the only one in its division at regionals, but this did not mean it got a free pass to nationals.

The group was informed it would need to maintain a minimum score that would be similar to those of the top one or two teams from all other regional competitions around the country. This ensured one thing: “Nobody’s going to nationals who doesn’t belong there,” Kreutter said.

The lack of another team’s physical presence to provide competition did not result in a letdown by the girls.

“They performed better than I’ve ever seen them perform before,” Kreutter said.

They executed a variety of difficult moves requiring a great deal of practice. One involved a flyer being loaded into the arms of a stunt group, which holds the girl and launches her through the air into the arms of another waiting stunt group.

The team also did a move in which a group would cradle a flyer, then pop her into the air, where she would do a full twist before landing in the cradle again.

The Junior Midget team will compete on Wednesday against seven other squads in its division, and the Junior Pee Wee group will be one among 16 teams competing on Monday at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.