FAIRMONT — After racking up the accolades in the world of competitive cheer, Fairmont Senior’s RyLee Lowther is leaping into a new world, signing with Glenville State’s acrobatics and tumbling program on Wednesday.
Lowther joins a Pioneers team that reminded the senior cheerleader a lot of her current Polar Bears program.
“It just felt different,” Lowther said at her signing. “It felt like I was at home. It kind of reminded me of how I feel here.”
During her time at Fairmont Senior, Lowther was a part of a Class-AA state runner-up team in 2021 and a state championship squad in 2020.
Lowther is a three-time regional champion with the Polar Bears and has been cheering for 15 years.
Now, after making it to state competition last week once again, Lowther is primed to change gears and jump into acrobatics and tumbling, a sport adjacent to competitive cheer, but one that will give new challenges for the soon-to-be Pioneer.
“Just the difference of everything,” Lowther said about the changes between cheer and tumbling. “The uniforms, the routines and how they go. It’s a big difference between cheer and acro.”
While a new endeavor for Lowther, she said that her extensive experience in cheer makes the transition easier.
When it came to deciding on her future home, Lowther said that she had considered other schools, but nothing felt like Glenville did for her. Pioneers head coach Taylor Broadwater reached out to Lowther online earlier this year, and her recruitment process has unfolded since then.
“She reached out to me through Instagram, and then I sent them videos of my tumbling and stuff, and then we set up two visits,” Lowther said. “Then, I practiced with them before I made my decision.”
Lowther plans to major in criminology and psychology, an interest that sprung from a class she took at the Marion County Technical Center.
While her time competing at Fairmont Senior has come to a close, Lowther said the experiences and success she had taught her lessons about being part of a team and persevering through adversity.
“No matter what, you’ve just got to keep going no matter what happens. There’s a bunch of other girls counting on you, and if you stop that ruins the whole effect of it.”