FAYETTE, Mo. – The Central Methodist University competitive cheer team has punched its ticket to the 2019 NAIA Competitive Cheer National Championship after securing an at-large bid, announced by the national office on Sunday evening. The 12-team competition will get underway with preliminaries on March 8.

This year's field includes four automatic qualifiers, eight at-large bids and one host berth. The automatic qualifiers are determined by the winners of the qualifiers. At-Large positions will be awarded to the teams with the eight highest Year End Scores that did not receive an automatic bid. St. Ambrose (Iowa), as the host, qualified for postseason competition.

Qualifier Highlights

• Defending national champions, Missouri Valley will return to the 2019 championship as the Southeast Qualifier Champion.
• Oklahoma City, who was the first champion and the 2018 runner-up, qualified as the Southwest Qualifier Champion.
• Seven of the 12 qualifying teams qualified for all three championships: Concordia (Mich.), Indiana Wesleyan, Lourdes (Ohio), Missouri Valley, Oklahoma City, St. Ambrose (Iowa) and St. Francis (Ind.)
• Four of the 12 qualifying teams will compete in the national championship for the first time: Aquinas (Mich.), Central Methodist (Mo.), Cumberlands (Ky.) and Mobile (Ala.).
• Lindenwood Belleville (Ill.) qualified for the second year after previously qualifying in the inaugural championship.

Competition will begin on March 8 in Lee Lohman Arena on the campus of St. Ambrose University (Iowa).

Schedule of events CLICK HERE

Competitive cheer All-Americans will be announced on Tuesday, February 26 at noon central time.