Four squads from Haydens All Star Twisters cheerleading program won national titles recently during the Cheersport Nationals at the World Congress Center in Atlanta.

"For us to walk out of here with almost a clean sweep is just amazing," said Leslie Anderson, director of Haydens All Stars.

Cheersport is the nation's top cheerleading competition and is Atlanta's third-largest sporting event behind the Super Bowl and Final Four. More than 800 teams and 15,000 cheerleaders from across the nation competed in the event.

Haydens gym, located in Evans, sent all five of its teams to compete. Each team was comprised of 20 girls and grouped based on age and skill level. The Youth Teal, Junior Teal, Senior Purple and Senior Teal teams each came away with championships. The fifth team, Youth Purple, finished in fourth place.

"Talking to the other coaches going in, we really had a strong feeling that it would be a very good weekend for us," Anderson said. "So, realistically, we thought we'd be top-three or top-five. But when they kept announcing at every awards ceremony 'the winner is Haydens All Stars,' we were completely blown away."

The Twisters work year-round on the 21/2-minute routine that they will perform at Cheersport. Even with such little room for error, the majority of the girls were confident that their countless hours of practice would overcome the intense pressure.

"There's always that little bit of doubt because you don't want to be overconfident, but I really think all of our hard work showed up in the end," said Hannah Forester, who is on the Senior Teal team.

Haydens now has 44 national titles to complement its region title total of more than 100.

The real pride for Haydens came not from the large trophy, but the jackets that read "Cheersport National Champions."

"We wore those as we leaving," Anderson said. "And we turned so that we could make sure everyone could see what it said."