PUBLISHED:
Sunday, February 25, 2007

Breckenridge prepping for the postseason

By NATE SCHNEIDER

Sun Sports Writer

For a couple area teams Saturday afternoon
at the Breckenridge Huskie Invite, it appears they
are close to or at where they like to be heading into the most important
stage of the season thusfar.

The
host Breckenridge squad, the top-ranked team in Division 4, sent its fans
home happy by securing the win by a large margin with 736 cumulative points.
Runner-up Merrill finished with 668.1 points, while Brown City
was third with 647 points.

In
the Division 2 & 3 portion of the competition, the second-ranked Division
2 team in Mt. Pleasant ended up in second place
(733.2 points) behind Chesaning (740.2 points) and one-tenth of a point ahead
of third-place DeWitt.

Chippewa
Hills, ranked third in Division 3, was fourth with 729.3 points as it scored
201, 218.8, and 308.5 in the three rounds.

For
the Huskies, the postseason performance is how the team is graded for a team
with such a rich tradition that includes six Class C-D state titles in the
past seven years.

According
to Breckenridge coach Deb Gaines, it is all coming together for what is
shaping to be another run at glory for her team.

"For
us, this was just another week to get our performance down before regionals," Gaines said. "I thought all three
rounds today were great and I saw things that we did better than even a week
ago."

In
round one, the Huskies scored 199 points. That was followed up by 222.5 in
round two before bringing it home with a 314.5 in the final round.

"We
are going to spend this next week doing the same things we have this past
week - getting ourselves ready. I think we are right where we need to
be," Gaines said.

As
the Huskies have fielded a smaller number of girls on their cheer team than
those championship teams in previous years, it has been a somewhat difficult
transition but Gaines is confident that it isn't even an issue at this point
of season.

"We
see the bigger teams and we are almost like, What is that? We like our little
group and the small numbers haven't hurt us at all," Gaines said.
"I'm glad it hasn't, because we are good enough."

Mt. Pleasant finished the day only behind
Division's second-ranked Chesaning and coach Kristi Lafleur
thinks her Oilers are also primed for a solid postseason as they posted a
season-best in the opening round of the invitational.

"We
scored over 200 points in round one and we hadn't done that all season. I was
very pleased with that score," LaFleur said.

After
scoring 200.5 in that first round, Mt.
Pleasant went on to
place scores of 219.7 and 313 to round out their day.

"This
should get them driven to want to work really hard this week because it's
going to be close at regionals and they do have an
opportunity to win," LaFleur said.

It
is a season in which the Oilers have been among the top two in the state
rankings all season, but LaFleur thinks that the
pressure is off her girls heading into the stretch drive.

"We
haven't been in this position before, so it is a relatively new feeling to be
in this spot but they understand what is at stake and they are willing to
work. All the hard work they have put in is starting to show in how they are
performing," LaFleur said.

Mt. Pleasant will play host to its regional this
upcoming Saturday. Breckenridge travels to the regional at Merrill, while
Chippewa Hills takes to the mat at Houghton
Lake.