Lake Orion earns rare title share with Rochester

Thursday, February 8, 2007

BY DAN STICKRADT

STAFF WRITER

Dating back
nearly 25 years, Rochester's
competitive cheer team has won a league championship every season since 1983.

On Saturday,
the Falcons were forced to share the overall title with one of their biggest
rivals.

Top-ranked
Rochester won the two previous OAA Division I jamborees held during the past
month, but fourth-ranked Lake Orion rose to the occasion at Saturday's OAA-I
league meet at Troy Athens to win the team title, giving the Dragons a share
of the overall league crown. It marks the first-ever competitive cheer league
title for Lake Orion.

"This is
exciting because (Rochester) had never lost a (league meet)
championship," beamed Lake Orion head coach Nancy DeAvila, whose team
also defeated Rochester at the CCAM Championships in December, but trailed
the Falcons at the two league jamborees. "It's a thrill to share the
league championship with Rochester.
They are the best (all-time) cheer team Michigan has to offer."

In the final
OAA Division I standings, Lake Orion and Rochester
tied with 18 points apiece.

Troy Athens
was third (10), Rochester Stoney Creek fourth (8) and Troy
fifth (6).

All five
schools are ranked or listed as honorable mention in this week's Division 1 coaches poll. Rochester is
No. 1, Lake Orion fourth and the other three all
honorable mention.

At the league
championships -- Division I and Division 4 were at Athens,
while D-II and D-III were held at West Bloomfield -- Lake Orion
helped its cause by winning both the first and third rounds Saturday.

The Dragons
finished with 732.2 points, one of the highest point totals in school
history. Rochester finished second with 728.1,
trailed by Athens (713.8), Troy
(700.9) and Stoney Creek (684).

Lake Orion
edged Rochester by a point (199.5--198.5) in
the first round with Athens
(196.5) a close third.

In the second
round, Rochester pulled ahead with 223.6
points, well ahead of Lake
Orion's 216.8.

In the third
and final round, the stunt round, Lake
Orion went last and
topped the charts with 316 points. Athens
scored 308 in that round and Rochester
306.

"That was
the most difficult thing, going last in the third round," DeAvila said.
"We saw that Rochester
had a couple of slip ups that hurt them. We just had to go out here and
perform well.

"I think
having the three-date league championships is good for the sport," added
DeAvila. "It gives everyone a chance if you have one bad day (at the
jamborees) to make it up. When you get to the final league meet, you just go
out and leave it all on the mats. I think we did just that."

OAA DIVISION II

Waterford Mott
won the OAA Division II league meet Saturday at West
Bloomfield, but Rochester Adams escaped with the overall league
crown.

Adams finished with 18 total points, ahead of
Mott's 16. West Bloomfield (11), Bloomfield
Hills Lahser (8) and Clarkston (7) rounded out the final standings.

At the league
meet, Mott scored 654.3 points, ahead of Adams'
637.1. West Bloomfield (602.7), Lahser
(601.8) and Clarkston (589.2) were all some distance behind.

Adams won the previous two league jamborees.

Mott won all
three rounds at the league meet with totals of 185, 168 and 300.5 points.

Clarkston was
fourth in Round I (172) but posted a fifth-place finish in Round II (155.7)
and a third-place total in Round III (261.5).