Grandville, E.
Kentwood finish in top 5

Saturday,
March 10, 2007

By Cris Greer

The Grand Rapids Press

WALKER -- Rochester won its third consecutive
Division 1 competitive cheer state title Friday, nearly 13 points ahead of
Grandville.

Rochester finished with 750.10 points,
followed by Grandville with 737.40, Southgate Anderson with 722.20 and East Kentwood. Rounding out the top 10 were Hartland, Lake Orion,
Novi, Brighton, Troy Athens and Henry Ford
II.

Rochester built up an 11 point lead heading
into the final round, which proved too large for second-place Grandville.

The Falcons scored 1 1/2
points higher than the Bulldogs in the third round to seal the championship
at the DeltaPlex.

"It's very exciting
to have that much of a lead," said Rochester
coach Susan Wood, in her 27th season. "We're usually a little bit closer
than that going into round three. It really did help take the pressure off
going into round three.

"We just got it done
before it was time to think too much."

Grandville coach Julie
Smith-Boyd agreed.

"It was a lot to make
up," said Smith-Boyd, whose team finished runner-up last year. "Our
round three was only one point difference than theirs, but it's hard to make
up that many points -- it's a different mind-set.

"The last couple of
years we fell, so our theme this year was to finish it, and I cannot be more
proud than how these girls finished. They're upset because our goal was to
win today, but they're champions."

"Fortunately, we peaked
today," said Wood, who was on the cheer team at Central Michigan
University with
Smith-Boyd. "We struggled in the beginning of the season with our round
three."

East
Kentwood
co-coach Stacy Sheler was excited about her team's fourth-place finish.

"We couldn't be
happier with our performance today," Sheler said. "We considered
this to be kind of a rebuilding year because we lost so many seniors last
year, so to get here was an honor."