Sunday, January 14, 2007

West Ottawa finishes second at own invite

Grandville wins by 21/2 points in competitive
cheer

By
LEO MARTONOSI Senior correspondent

West Ottawa let Grandville off
the hook at the West Ottawa Competitive Cheer Invitational Saturday.

"We
did really well in rounds one and two," said West
Ottawa senior Chrissy Oest.

The
Bulldogs outscored the Panthers in the decisive third round, 317.5-313.5 to
claim team Division 1 championship honors with a 739.5 overall score. The
Panthers led by 1.5 points entering the last round.

"This
hurts because we were in position to win our own invitational," said
senior Mallory Tanis.

West Ottawa led Grandville after the first round,
199.5-199 and 423.5-422 heading into the final round.

"We'll
definitely learn from this," said first-year Panthers' coach Christine
Brandt. "We had great first and second rounds."

West Ottawa finished in second place with 737 points,
while finishing third with 684 points was Hudsonville.

Tanis said judges play a
critical role in competitive cheer.

"It
really comes down to what the judges think," Tanis said.

The
Panthers fell just short of one of their goals on the day.

"We
wanted to prove we were better than Grandville," Oest
said.

There was
a big reason for that.

"We
are in the same region and they qualified for state last year and we
didn't," Amanda Underwood said. "We want to make it to state this
year."

Grandville
came into the invitational ranked one spot behind No. 2 West Ottawa.

"The
rankings are nice, an opinion, but it's really what you do on the floor that
matters," Brandt said.

Brandt
said one of the keys to the Panthers' high ranking is solid leadership.

"We
are getting excellent leadership from our captains -- Heather Fuglseth, Amanda Janowiak and
Alex Russell," Brandt said.

Parents,
relatives and friends of the cheerleaders, were not the only ones on hand for
the spirited competition.

"There
were a lot of people here," Brandt said. "I really thought the home
crowd helped us. We really fed off them."

Fennville's
second-year program finished second out of three schools in Division 3 with a
score of 480.5.

"We
did really well, especially for only practicing for one week on Round
3," said Jessica Fortenberry, assistant Blackhawks coach. "This is a whole new group of
girls and our goals are to better our scores from last year."