Maroons prove talents at home

Sunday,
January 21, 2007

Sentinel/Dan
Irving

CHEER: The Holland Christian
Competitive Cheer team competes Saturday at the Holland Christian
Invitational.

Sentinel/Dan Irving

Members of the Zeeland East
Competitive Cheer team compete Saturday at the Holland Christian
Invitational.

By
Chris Lewis

The Holland Christian girls competitive cheerleading
team won its home invitational with a total score of 679.7 points Saturday.

The Maroons
are ranked No. 3 in Division 2.

"It was
exciting to win our home invitational in front of our fans," Holland
Christian head coach Beth Cunningham said.

Holland
Christian scored 188.5 points during the first round.

Requirements
for the round included a choreographed routine that had to contain two jumps
performed by each team member at the same time, as well as including five
floor movements.

The Maroons
followed a strong first round with 200.7 points in the second round.

During the
second round all cheerleaders had to perform a 10-count precision drill as a
team.

Finally, the
Maroons ended the third round, which included a variety of jumps and
gymnastic skills with 389.2 points.

Despite the
team's success, Cunningham still sees areas for improvement.

"We
need to work on little things that went wrong during the rounds,"
Cunningham said. "While working, it is important for the team to
continue to keep having fun."

Zeeland East
finished last in Division 2 with 488.8 points.

The Chix had 155 points in the first round, 113.3 in the
second round and 268.3 in the third round.

"The
girls did very well. They improved their overall score this week by 78
points," Zeeland East head coach Erica Robinson said. "Right now we
are trying to make the competitive cheer program grow. We need to have fun
and try to get the entire community involved," Robinson said.

Other
Division 2 teams and scores included runner up Byron Center with 671.4
points, Kenowa Hills with 649.1 points and a third place finish, Grand Rapids
Christian with 626 points, Reeths Puffer with 603.7 points, Wayland with
603.6 points and Middleville with 575 points.

Zeeland East
competes Saturday at Reeths Puffer.

Holland
Christian competes again Thursday at East Kentwood.

"We are
going to work hard over the next few days to improve for Thursday
night," Cunningham said.