McMaster cheerleaders look to bounce back after botched routine goes viral

McMaster Marauders Cheerleaders are looking to bounce back after a botched routine in Florida went viral late last week.

The team was performing at the National Cheerleaders Association and National Dance Alliance College National Championship in Daytona, Fla., on April 6 and April 7.

Video of the team's first run went viral on Twitter after it had several blunders.

The mistakes start within the first 20 seconds of the roughly two-minute performance.

One part shows a woman get thrown at least 10 feet into the air, but instead of going straight up, she flies toward the side and is caught inches from the mat below.

Moments later after regrouping, two sets of people form a pyramid, one of which nearly saw a woman spike her head straight into the mat.

Videos of the routine got over 430,000 views on Twitter, along with many tweets critical of the performance.

Thalia Marinis, a cheerleader on the team, posted a TikTok saying the team did well in practice but it didn't translate to the mat.

"We were literally getting cyberbullied ... the coaches were telling us to ignore all the mean tweets," she said.

"We decided to go on a walk to make ourselves feel better and get some food ... it was exactly what I needed to feel better about our terrible competition day."

Scores from the competition show they had 10 deductions and placed last that day in their division, advanced all-girl division 1A.

Coach Kelly Van Burgsteden told CBC Hamilton the team practised since last summer and won the Power Cheerleading Athletics Collegiate Championship (PCA), which prompted the team to enter this competition. 

She said this was the first time the team performed at this level.

"When a skill misfires in cheerleading it can look scary to the general