Holland Christian wins O-K
Green meet again

Friday,
February 23, 2007

By Cris Greer

The Grand Rapids Press

HOLLAND -- There were no surprises at the
O-K Green conference competitive cheer meet Thursday at Holland Christian.

For the fourth consecutive
year, the Maroons took first place and won the conference. Holland Christian,
currently ranked first in the state in Division 2, won the meet with a score
of 703.3, followed by Mona Shores, 665.7, Unity Christian, 632.9,
Reeths-Puffer, 605, Zeeland East, 535, Zeeland West, 532.5 and Muskegon, 437.9.

"I'm very happy that
they were able to take home their fourth conference title," Holland
Christian coach Beth Cunningham said. "Tonight was a good performance.
It wasn't one of our cleanest performances of the year, but they did well.

"It was a good
performance today, but we're just hoping our best performances are for regionals and state. We have regionals
to think about and we really have to get focused for that. Hopefully, if we
take first or second at regionals, we're off to the
state finals for our third year."

Holland Christian senior
Ashley Baumann was thrilled with her team's performance.

"It was exciting to
do it again this year, I've been on the team for four years," said
Baumann, one of eight seniors. "It's just a good feeling to keep it up.
There's always room for improvement, but I'm happy with the way we did."

Baumann is hoping for a
top-notch finish at the state finals.

"Obviously, my goal
as a senior is to win a state championship, we're hopefully pretty close.
We've got to keep working hard this year."

Zeeland East coach Erica
Robinson, who cheered with Cunningham at West Ottawa
in 2002, was thrilled with the Chix' first-year
program.

"They have completely
exceeded our expectations," Robinson said. "They've gone above and
beyond what we ever thought we could have gotten out of the first year.

"They're very
flexible and willing to do whatever we ask them to do. They've done an
awesome job."

Zeeland West also is in
its first year of
competitive cheer.