Dr. Amy Xu got hooked on cheerleading in the fifth grade. As she pursued the sport in high school and college, she witnessed how the routines started demanding increasingly complex acrobatic feats — ...

Mar. 4—ROCHESTER — Gracyn Brion was soaring and flying on Saturday afternoon. She trained like she does four times a week at her "second home" at the Minnesota Xtreme All Star Cheer gym in Rochester.

Fleetwood High School cheerleader Samantha Colelli, 17, a senior at Fleetwood, does a basket during halftime at a game in 2017. As cheerleading has become more ambitious over the last decade, it's ...