Kenowa Hills
cheerleaders win conference tourney

by Jonathan Kollnot

Monday February 18, 2008, 4:59 PM

Karen Waite

Kenowa Hills' competitive cheer squad took first place at Saturday's
conference meet.

GRAND RAPIDS - This year could be the year of
the Knight in the O-K White.

At least, that's how it looks two
meets into the conference cheerleading season. Kenowa Hills' varsity
cheerleaders are off to their best start in school history, and they continued
that trend by decisively winning last Wednesday's home conference meet. The
Knights broke three school records in the process, and there are still two
meets to go in the league race.

Kenowa Hills
took first place out of the five teams with a total team score of 732.220. In
what turned out to be a nip-and-tuck race for the second spot, a young
Caledonia squad tallied 691.564 points for second place ahead of Forest Hills' total of 686.843. Northview finished
fourth (621.448) and Lowell
rounded out the varsity competition with a fifth-place score of 596.368.

The Knights took command of the meet early on the strength of near-flawless
execution of their stunts and excellent synchronization. Kenowa scored a
school record 213.5 in round one, which was good enough for a 14.5-point lead
over Forest Hills. The Knights followed that
performance with another record-breaking score of 219.720 in the second
round.

Coach Brenda Looks' Knights also
shattered a KH mark with their 732.220 overall score, putting the Knights on
target for perhaps their best season start ever.

"I thought their round one
they did much better tonight," said Looks. "They just needed to
clean up some things, and they just came out and really hit it. Our round
two, they stuck their skills. Their tucks were amazing. Every round was very
solid."

This strong performance leaves the
Knights in the driver's seat for first place in the conference, with the next
conference meet slated for Wednesday at Forest Hills Northern. The league
championship meet will be held at Lowell
on Saturday.

"We have been doing really
well this year, and tonight was our best score ever," said Looks.
"So it was our best performance ever as well."

Second place was by no means a
disappointment for head coach Heidi Snoap and the Caledonia cheerleaders. The Fighting Scots fell behind
Forest Hills 199-195 after round one, but Caledonia
pulled ahead with a round two score of 192.654, as compared to FH's round-two tally of 187.343. Heading into the third
round the Scots held a slim 387.564-386.343 lead over FH, but then came Caledonia's best showing of the night.

The Scots aced their round three
routine and earned the best final-round score of the night with a 304. FH had
a 300.5, followed closely by Kenowa's 299. That
performance gave the Scots second place on the night and a tie with the Forest Hills co-op team for second place on the season.

"We are so excited. Our goal
was trying not to get third place, so it was good," said Snoap. "Our third round was the best it's ever been
and that's really what sealed the deal. I think we had the highest-scoring
third round here. So now we've gotta try to bring
that out in the first and second rounds.

"We've had a lot of injuries
and it's been hard to keep the girls able to do their skills. But the girls
that went out there today work really well together."

Caledonia's team has had to come together
quickly this year with no seniors and mostly juniors and a few underclassmen
on the roster. But the Scots look to stay on pace for a second-place finish
in the league.

"I would like us to be able
to finish second," said Snoap.
"Ultimately, I would have liked a first place, but the scores didn't
fall that way today that we would've have a chance.
But we're excited to finish in second place. We just want to keep improving
our scores in all three rounds everytime.

Kristin Linscott,
the co-coach of the Forest Hills co-op team
was happy with her team's performance despite having to settle for third
place.

"I think that we closed out
with a great round three," said Linscott.
"It was definitely something to write home about; the girls did a great
job. I think when you're competing at this level it comes down to points,
10ths of a point, and that's just how it goes. I'm very proud of the girls.
They started round one. Going first in round one is a little nervewracking, but they did what they needed to do.

"We've been working on our
back tucks, and they were landing them and getting used to that. So in round
three we just went out there and did what we needed to do."

Like most area schools, the three Forest Hills schools that comprise the FH co-op
cheerleading team have had to deal with numerous snow days and girls being
out sick. But Linscott explained that the whole
team has gelled exceptionally well, and that team chemistry has played out on
the mats.

"We've got great senior
leadership, girls that have cheered all four years. But we've also got quite
a few young girls, freshmen coming in with great skills," said Linscott. "So there's just a really good mix. And
having the girls coming in from three different schools always creates a
great dynamic also."

The fourth place Northview
Wildcats scored 190 in round one, followed by tallies of 172.448 and 259 in
round three for their 621.448 total. Lowell
had individual round scores of 187, 167.868 and 241.5 for a 596.368 total
score.