Blue Devil cheerleaders best in the North

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 8:48 AM EST

The Gaylord cheerleaders came up with their best performance
of the season Saturday. Here (l-r): Chelsey
Williams, Taylor Miner and Alicia McNamara perform a stunt. Photo Courtesy
of Sarah Freeman

GAYLORD — The Gaylord girls cheerleading squad is
scrapping its rebuilding project.

Coach Ronda Davis thought the Blue Devils may be in somewhat of a
transitional year, but her team proved her wrong in a stellar performance at
the Northern Michigan Cheerleading Championships Saturday.

Gaylord blew away the 12-squad field to take first place, besting the nearest
team by almost 100 points.

“The girls did an amazing job — I’ve
never seen them do things as well as they did,” Davis said. “I thought this would be
a building year, but this is definitely not. We’ve exceeded
expectations.”

The Blue Devils took the floor with just 12 girls — down from 23 last season — but Davis
said the proof is in the quality, not the quantity.

“Their tumbling skills are amazing and they really wowed the crowd,”
she said. “They kept them on the edge of their seat. It was jaw
dropping.”

Alicia McNamara thrilled onlookers with an impressive roundoff
back handspring into a back tuck while Hilary Puroll
flew gracefully through the air with her aerial cartwheel. Davis also said Stephanie Renkiewicz has taken a strong leadership role and added
all dozen of the Blue Devils performed to the best of their capabilities.
Gaylord, who also took first at a Traverse City West meet last week, is
posting some of the best scores in the state in Division II, proving that a
once overlooked team could provide some major noise at the state level this
year.

“That’s our goal,” Davis
said.

The Blue Devils have a pair of competitions this week — Thursday at
Roscommon and Saturday at Farwell.