Serving Greenville, Belding and Montcalm County, Michigan
since 1854.

Central
Montcalm second, Belding is third again at competitive cheer meet

Thursday,
January 11, 2007

By John Raffel - Daily News sports
editor

Central
Montcalm
competitive cheerleaders, from left, Taryn
Powell, Jill Parker and Nicole Wright perform a routine during
Wednesday’s second round. — Daily News/Joe Veselenak

BELDING —
Neither Belding Coach Stacy Venneman nor Central Montcalm skipper Deb Comden
saw the improvement they wanted to see when their squads competed in
Wednesday’s Belding Competitive Cheer Invitational, four days after
they made their season debuts.

Disappointed? Yes.
Discouraged? No.

Both teams took part in
Saturday’s New Year Cheer at Central Montcalm
where the host Green Hornets finished second and Belding third in Division 3.

They repeated those
accomplishments Wednesday at Redskin Arena. Breckenridge won the
one-division, seven-team meet with 680.2 points followed by Central with
552.6, the Redskins with 542.8, Shepherd with 477.5, Godwin Heights with
470.3, Marion with 407.6 and Grand Rapids South Christian with 212.7.

“We had some
errors,” said Comden. “I’m still
looking for the girls to be stronger.”

Belding led the Hornets
172.5-169.5 for second place after the first round, which features required
moves. After the second round, which calls for compulsories, Central Montcalm had moved ahead 336.6-331.8, with
Breckenridge on top with 404.2 points.

The Hornets had a
226-211 advantage over the Redskins in the third round, which features
mounts.

“We had some
errors that are fixable,” Comden said.
“We’re looking to get stronger.”

Venneman said the short time
between the first and second meets of the season made it challenging to show
marked improvement.

“We had two days
to get ready,” she noted. “We have a (O-K) conference meet coming
up and we’ll have to get ready for that.

“Tonight was the
first time the girls had a chance to perform on their home mat,” Venneman said. “With only two days from our last meet
and with one of our girls out with an injury, we know we have a lot of things
to work on.”

Central
Montcalm will compete in Saturday’s Comstock Park Invitational and
then at the Farwell Invitational on Jan. 20.

Belding also will be on
hand at Comstock
Park. The
Redskins’ next home meet will be an O-K Conference rally Feb. 1.