DENVER - They entered the Denver Coliseum awed at the size of the arena and amazed with the talent they saw on the practice mat. But, as the day unfolded, the Coal Ridge High School cheerleaders knew they belonged.

"The general reaction of the girls was, 'Oh my goodness. Look at this arena. It's huge,'" said Titans coach Jill Hamrick. "For some of the kids, they have never performed before, so this was big time to them."

"It felt awkward," said captain Nadine Chavez, one the team's few cheerleaders with previous competition experience. "I remember what it was like when I was younger coming here. I saw that in our freshman today. I felt just like that when I was their age."

Five hours after walking through the arena's doors, all the nerves the Titans cheerleaders had were gone.

No, Coal Ridge didn't advance to the Class 3A finals. They finished 15th out of a preliminary field of 29 schools. Buena Vista, ranked second in the preliminaries, won the 3A title with the highest score among four schools that advanced to the finals.

However, none of the cheerleaders or their coach cared much about the final placing.

"We stuck all our stunts and we rocked," Chavez said enthusiastically. "The girls were all stoked and they were so excited. They were happy because they thought they did a great job. And they did."

"I was so overwhelmed and excited I started crying after we came off the mat," added cheerleader Terryn Weise. "I'm just proud of everybody. I thought we'd never make it as far as we did. I'm proud to be on this squad."

Hamrick, the Titans coach since the school opened three years ago, is equally proud of the team's showing.

"The most important thing is these girls have gotten this far," she said. "They got out on the floor, worked their routine and did it for themselves."

Only two of the Titans cheerleaders - Chavez and Weise - had previous cheerleading competition experience.

That was three years ago as freshmen at Rifle High School.

"We only have five seniors on the squad," Hamrick said of the 17-member group. "The rest are very young."

Chavez has been part of the program's growth from the beginning.

"When I started we had 10 girls. Now we have 17," she said. "And there's more that want to get involved. The program's getting stronger."

Bolstered by the good performance at this weekend's state competition, Hamrick hopes to enter one or two more competitions this year.

After this season's over, the coach wants to shoot for higher goals.

"I would like to take them to the national level," Hamrick said. "I know these girls can do that."