Three
'perfect' rounds boost Kentwood
cheer

Saturday,
March 01, 2008

By
Jane Bos

The Grand Rapids Press

KENTWOOD -- Taylor Mandella,
a senior member of the East Kentwood
competitive cheer team, had no trouble putting her team's regional
championship on Saturday into perspective.

"It was our most
perfect rounds ever, all three, and I can't express how I feel about it well
enough," she said, still smiling and bouncing on her toes. "I can't
even begin to describe how awesome it feels. We've always had two good rounds
and one not so good. Today, all three were perfect."

After finishing runner-up
to Grandville at the Division 1 regional meet a year ago and in the O-K Red
Conference meet a week ago, the Falcons finally came out on top.

East
Kentwood scored its highest total of the year, posting 796.496 to capture
first place. Grandville was second with 791.204 points. But second is good
enough to advance to Friday's state finals at the DeltaPlex.

The top two teams in each
regional compete for the Division 1 state championship, beginning at 6 p.m.

Rockford just missed qualifying for the
state tournament, winding up in third place with a total of 784.668. Jenison
was fourth (775.596), West Ottawa was fifth
(764.352) and Hudsonville was sixth (755.810).

All top six finishers are
from the O-K Red.

"I have said all
year that it could be anyone winning here, our conference has been so close
this year," said Grandville coach Julie Smith-Boyd, whose team has
advanced to state every since the sports inception in 1994. "Regionals
just brings out the best in everybody."

It certainly brought out East Kentwood's best.

Led by seven seniors -- Mandella, Bianca Martin, Lynzi Zuk, Arreyl Carpenter, Kate
Haynes, Kelsie Clark, Kahley Mullehan -- they
scored the highest of every team in all three rounds.

Entering the final round,
the Falcons led Grandville by just over three points. They outscored the
Bulldogs 323.500-321.50 in the last one to capture the victory.

"All year long we
have been pushing to have a perfect round for every round," said East Kentwood coach Stacy Sheler.
"Today, they did a really good job of putting it all together."

"All day long, we
were not focused on the other teams here. We were focused on us, how we were
doing."

Kentwood also gets help focusing from two
assistant coaches -- Stephanie Stephenson and Nettie Rogers.

Now, after scoring its
more perfect rounds of the season, can the Falcons top that at state on
Friday?

"We are going to do
our best to be even better," said Mandella,
who also was on the 2006 regional championship team. "This is so much
better than ever. This team is so strong and so together."

DIVISION 2 AT KENOWA
HILLS: The host Knights and Grand Rapids Christian qualified for state-meet
action. Kenowa Hills scored 742.708 points, including a meet-leading 312
points in the third round, while the Eagles had 741.544.

DIVISION 3 AT WYOMING PARK: Comstock
Park was the only area team to
advance out of this regional, scoring 769.309 points to finish ahead of Shelby.