Rockford shines in Round 3 to win invitational

Sunday,
January 13, 2008

By Chad Simcox

The Grand Rapids Press

HOLLAND -- The Rockford competitive cheer team saved its
best for last at Saturday's third-annual West Ottawa Invitational.

The Rams posted the highest Round
3 score of the 17 teams competing to come from behind and take home first
place in Division 1 in front of a crowd of more than 1,000 spectators.

"It was anyone's game going
into the last round," Rockford
coach Kathy Jo Resseguie said. "West Ottawa
was ahead of us. But we had our strongest team out there."

The Rams trailed by less than two
points heading into the final round. They needed a big effort as West Ottawa posted a score of 302.000 in Round 3, its
best of the day.

They got it.

The Rams, ranked No. 7 in Division
1, delivered a polished routine and received a score of 305.500 to win the
final round and the invite.

Rockford finished with a 765.256 total to
sneak past West Ottawa (763.068) and
third-place Hudsonville (725.350).

"It's a huge win," said
Resseguie, who is in her 14th season as coach. "Any win in our
conference is amazing."

The Rams compete in the uber-competitve O-K Red, which featured five schools in
the state's most recent top-10 Division 1 competitive cheer rankings.

Two of those schools, Grandville
and East Kentwood, chose not to attend
Saturday's event in favor of other invites. Had they decided otherwise, it
may have changed the outcome.

Grandville, ranked No. 2 in the
state, cruised to an easy victory in the O-K Red preseason meet Wednesday. Rockford finished in
fourth place.

"The biggest thing is
building our confidence," Ressuige said.

The Rams are off until Saturday
when they compete at the Hudsonville Invitational.

West Ottawa, ranked No. 3 in Division 1,
showed they could be even better in the near future by winning the JV and
freshman portion of the invite.

"They did awesome," West Ottawa coach Kristine Brandt said. "They've
done great all season."

In Division 2, Muskegon's Reeths-Puffer came in third
place with a final total of 646.605. Unity Christian finished fifth.