Kelloggsville cheer team takes second in Silver

by Jen Judson

Tuesday February 19,
2008, 8:56 AM

Larry Hirt

Kelloggsville cheer team members perform their round three routine.

WYOMING -- It was another exciting night
in the O-K Silver Competitive Cheer Conference. With the first two rounds
going to Kelloggsville, Allendale pulled out the top score in round three to
come out on top for the night.

Allendale
captured No. 1 with its 652.76 points, followed by Kelloggsville (632.6) and
Belding (616.7). In fourth place was Lee with 600.2, fifth was Calvin
Christian (566.295), Hopkins (sixth, 553.89),
and Godwin Heights (304.9).

The
Falcons took second in the first and second rounds with scores of 191.5 and
168.76, respectively. They then hit it in the third round with a top score of
292.5.

Allendale
is led by its seniors: Gabby Gray, Micha Pentico, Rachel Wallace, Melissa Beck, and Kristin VanderKooi.

"That
was our highest round 3 score so far, by probably 10 or 15 points," said
Allendale coach Kendra DeRose. "We really hit
on everything in round 3."

For the
runners-up, Kelloggsville, the night was a bit of a surprise. Sophomore flyer
Lisa Rypma cut her ankle and had to get stitches, but
that didn't stop her from giving a high-flying performance.

"It
was awesome," said Kelloggsville coach Stephanie Jenkins. "After
round 1, it was awesome. It was a shocker. (Lisa) had to get stitches this
week, so I was very, very nervous. I am very proud of her that she performed
all three rounds."

The
Rockets are led by senior Liz Creamer, juniors Sabrina Jenkins and Stephanie Strotheide, and Rypma. They
scored first in both rounds 1 (195.5) round 2 (182.1).

"In
round 1, we added another girl in and changed a little bit around, and got an
awesome score. In round 2, our tucks all landed," said Coach Jenkins.

The
Squires claimed a fifth-place finish, after taking fifth with their combined
first (165.5) and second (152.295) round score of 317.795. They scored 248.5
in the final round.

Calvin
Christian is led by junior captain Annamarie Koster, and sophomores Lindsay Ziel
and Emily Vegter.

"They
have all improved so much," said Calvin Christian coach Amanda Van Ess. "We have really worked on rounds 1 and 2 really
hard. Those scores have really improved by a good 20 points, so those two
rounds really picked up. We just have to work on putting together round 1, 2,
and 3 together.

"They've
done so well this season. They are young, and we have three Korean foreign-exchange
students this season. We are trying to work with the language barrier. They
have all done an amazing job working together and becoming a varsity
team."

Another
team to have steady improvements all season is the Hopkins team. The Vikings got a 10-point
improvement in round 1 (167) and an eight-point boost in round 2 (140.39).
But the biggest difference came with their score of 246.5 in round 3.

The Hopkins captains and
floor leaders are Chelsea Mshar, Eva LaBay, Rachel Deater, and
Heather Napieralski.

"We
did awesome. This was the first time we broke 500," said Hopkins coach Autumn
Kraima. "In round 3, we improved by about 50 points. We improved in all
three (rounds), but it was a huge difference in round 3."

The O-K
Silver will conclude at the conference tournament this at Hopkins High School,
starting at 10 a.m.