Kelloggsville
continues to lead O-K Silver cheer standings

Grant Lofdahl | Advance Newspapers, February 10, 2009

Kelloggsville performs
its round 3 routine at the O-K Silver competitive cheer jamboree at Calvin
Christian last Wednesday evening. - (ADVANCE photos by LARRY A. HIRT)

Allendale performs its
round 3 routine at the O-K Silver competitive cheer jamboree at Calvin
Christian last Wednesday evening.

GRANDVILLE - The more
things change, the more they stay the same, and that's a good thing for the
Kelloggsville competitive cheer team this season.

The Rockets won their
fourth-consecutive O-K Silver tournament last Wednesday at Calvin Christian,
the fourth different site at which they've competed. Following on the heels
of first-place finishes at Godwin Heights, Allendale and Lee, Kelloggsville
made it 4-for-4 with a three-round total of 668.94 points.

"Our scores were
around the same as the other conference meets," said Rockets coach
Stephanie Jenkins. "We did well, but for some reason we always seem to
score much higher at invitationals. Now that we
have the conference pretty much wrapped up, we are really striving for a
top-4 finish at districts."

Kelloggsville took a
slight lead after the first round with a score of 198.9, just ahead of
Allendale's 192.2. The Rockets lengthened their lead to more than 25 points
after a round-two score of 188.04 to Allendale's 166.826.

Any chance for a Falcon
upset was put to rest when the Rockets took the mat for their round-three
routine, during which they racked up 282 points for the combined 668.94
score. Allendale scored 260.8 in the third round for a total of 619.826
points.

"Round three is our
best round by far," said coach Jenkins, a former Rocket cheerleader who
is in her second season as varsity coach. "We had one really awesome
practice over the summer where it all came together, but otherwise the girls
have improved their routine gradually and steadily. We're still trying to
clean up our tucks in round two; that's the biggest area for improvement. We
want to strive for clean tucks. "

After Allendale, which
has been nipping at the Rockets' heels all season long in second place, there
was a dogfight for the third-place spot in the fourth Silver tournament. Host
Calvin Christian took an early lead with 158 first-round points, then extended that lead with a 166.44 second-round score.

Lee, Hopkins and Godwin Heights all stayed in contention, and it
was the Rebels with a big third-round score of 239.5 who emerged as the
third-place finisher. Lee's first and second-round scores were 139.3 and
132.8 for a total of 511.6.

Hopkins placed fourth with rounds of
137.7, 116.44, and 229.6 for a 483.74 total, with Calvin Christian (158,
166.44, 155.9) just behind with 482.34 total points.
Godwin Heights (153.4, 117.2496, 209.7) finished sixth with a score of 480.3496.

Kelloggsville showed that
its future is as bright as the present, as the Rocket JV squad posted a score
of 473.456.

"We have eight
varsity girls and they all get along really well," said Jenkins of her
small and close-knit team.

The Rockets are led by
seniors Sabrina Jenkins, Stephanie Strotheide and
Katie Gatschel, along with juniors Rypma, Alex Lane, Anmer DeWater, Katlyn Davis and Haley
Pomorski. Sabrina Jenkins, Strotheide
and Rypma serve as captains.

The final conference meet
is this Saturday at Kelloggsville. The following week, most of the conference
is at Coopersville for districts, where coach Jenkins said Comstock Park and Catholic Central will be
among the favorites. Calvin Christian travels north to Marion for its district, while Hopkins heads south to Otsego.

Teams that finish in the
top-4 will move on to the regional round on Saturday, February 28, also at
Coopersville.