Colon collects D-4 crown at Blue Devil
invite

Friday,
January 14, 2007

By Leah
Soubly

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388-8400

RICHLAND -- The entire gymnasium was filled
with cheering -- and it wasn't all coming from the six girls performing their
Round 3 routine on the floor.

Colon's final round was filled with
unique skills, impressive tumbling and functional stunt groups that had the
crowd glued to their seats and partaking in the cheering.

``The reaction of the crowd
and our coach, you can tell things are going good,'' said Melissa Thornton, a
four-year varsity performer for Colon.
``It just feels good, and you know you are hitting everything.''

By the time the Magi
stepped on the mat for the final round of the Division 4 competition at the
Blue Devil Invitational at Gull
Lake on Saturday, the
squad was clenching first place by only 9.2 points.

When the competition
finished, Colon seized first place with a
score of 652, followed by Shelby
at 626.3. The Magi had received 288.5 for their final round.

``I expected them to do
well, but they did much better than I expected,'' Colon coach Jayne Sabaitis
said. ``They are very talented athletes.''

Last week, the Magi lost a
teammate to an injury and had to completely re-work all three of their
routines. The Gull Lake competition was Colon's first appearance of the season.

``We were a little leery
about how it was going to go,'' Sabaitis said. ``It
was kind of a tough week and stressful, but they did a really great job and
pulled through.''

With six returnees -- four
of them seniors -- the Magi are hoping to continue to contend, but are mainly
focusing on improving their scores at each competition.

Last season, the squad
finished first at its regional competition and fifth at the state meet.

``We have better skills
than we did last year; even though we are smaller, we have a lot more
variety,'' Thornton said. ``We are small, but we have a lot of power.''

In Division 1, Portage
Central claimed second place with a final score of 636.8, 41 points behind
first-place Forest Hills.

The Mustangs were coming
off a runner-up finish at Otsego's invitational last Saturday, and improved
their scores by more than 10 points in each round.

``The first round was
amazing -- it's the best they've ever done, I think,'' P-Central coach Katie
Brennan said. ``We had a couple injuries this week, and we had some changes
to the formations, but the girls sucked it up and worked really hard.''

In Division 2, after two
solid rounds, Portage Northern's tiny error in the
third round handed the squad a second-place finish, only 17.6 points behind
winner Byron Center.

``We had a good Round 1
and Round 2 -- some skills really hit that needed to hit,'' Northern coach
Heather Prentice said.

Twelve members of the
Huskies squad performed Round 1 with loud and clear cheers and precise skills
that handed them a 186.5, putting Northern in the lead by nine points.

``Their scores keep
increasing each week and they keep pushing themselves,'' Prentice said. ``They
really focus on each other. It's about putting the best out there.''

In Division 3, Allegan placed second with a
total of 634.5, 30.1 points behind first-place Chippewa Hills.