Through no fault of her own, Mackenzie Palmer saw her cheer career come to an abrupt end.

After a stellar career on Kingfisher High School’s cheerleading team, she took her abilities to Shawnee’s St. Gregory’s University.

All went well in her freshman year, but in the fall of 2017, St. Gregory’s made the announcement that sent shockwaves through the state and changed the lives of hundreds upon hundreds of students.

The university was shutting down its operations.

The daughter of Jeff and Kristi Palmer of Kingfisher was left without a cheer team, but, more importantly, a school.

“That was one of the biggest tests of faith in my life,” she said. “I couldn’t understand why God would do something like that to so many people.”

As she later discovered, there’s always a plan. Hers just took her down a different path than what she originally expected.

Earlier this month in Daytona, Fla., that plan turned into a national championship for Palmer and other members of Oklahoma Baptist University’s intermediate cheer team as they won the National Cheer Association’s 2019 Collegiate Championship in the All-Girl Division II.

Later that same day, OBU’s advanced team also won the national crown, making it a clean sweep.

“This has been one of the biggest moments of my life and I couldn’t be more proud of my teammates and I, and all we have accomplished together this year,” Palmer said.

But it almost didn’t happen.

St. Gregory’s closing left her cheerleading career in the dark.

“I remember in our last practice together we all went around our circle we were seated in and said the things that we would miss about each other and cried,” Palmer recalled.

“I was actually ready to end my cheer career after that.”

But Jessica Stiles, OBU’s cheer coach, had other plans. She reached out to Palmer and offered her a spot at the other college in Shawnee.

Palmer accepted and went to work. That work intensified this school year.

Practices, up to four days a week, began at 5:30 a.m.

“There were many breaks that we didn’t go on or came back early in order to have all-day practices and iron out all the little details,” said Palmer, a health and human performance major.

That went on for six months before leaving April 2 for Florida.

The team practiced for two days before competition began Thursday, April 4, in the Daytona Beach Bandshell.

After the first day of competition, which accounted for 25 percent of the overall score, OBU was in first place.

“We had a small practice that night to go over anything that wasn’t perfect in the routine and went to bed with high spirits,” she said.

Since OBU was in first place, it competed last on the final day, Friday, at Ocean Center. That day was worth 75 percent of the final score.

“I can’t tell you the emotion going through all of us,” Palmer remembers. “It was our last time with that team and this was the moment for us to show all the hard work we had put in over the last six months.”

When the routine was over, the emotion hit.

“We competed and all came off the mat crying at how proud we were of everyone,” Palmer said.

But they’d won nothing…at least not yet.

They gathered all the teams in the division on the mats for the awards ceremony.

They started with 10th place and worked their way down.

When three teams were left, OBU was still among them. Then there were two.

“Our team stood holding hands and all of our hearts were pumping,” Palmer said.

“Then once they announced Valdosta State was in second place we knew we had won and everyone was screaming and crying and hugging each other.”

Among those in the crowd was Lombardo, her high school coach, former OBU assistant and now head cheer coach at Crossings Christian School.

“It’s great to see Mack excel at the college level, but it’s not surprising. She is one of the hardest workers I have ever coached,” Lombardo said.

“She never complained and has always had a passion for getting better each practice. I am so proud of her perseverance in college cheerleading and happy to see it pay off on such a big stage.”

About 15 months ago, none of it seemed possible.

Palmer was left questioning, searching, doubting.

Then Stiles and OBU stepped in.

“Luckily I said yes and we have had such a spectacular year,” Palmer said. “I couldn’t imagine how this year would have been so drastically different.”

When she left KHS as a graduate in 2016, it wasn’t the road Palmer was expecting to take.

But there were other plans for her, even when she didn’t know why.

“All in all when I look at the shutting down of St. Greg’s, I realize everything happens for a reason,” she said. “I wouldn’t be the person I am today if it hadn’t.”