Tri-County Times

Linden, LF cheer
teams win county titles

By David Troppens

Published: Wednesday,
February 11, 2009 6:16 AM EST

To say Saturday was a good day for the Linden competitive cheer
program would be an understatement.

And Lake Fenton’s program had a
pretty fine day  itself as well.

Both varsity programs took home division titles at the  All-Genesee Cheer
Championship. Among all divisions Lake Fenton had the second-best
score among the 10 varsity programs, while Linden was third.

But Linden’s good news
didn’t stop there. The program also came home with championships in
three other divisions. The JV squad, the seventh-grade team and the
eighth-grade program also won county championships.

“It was a great day for all four teams,” Linden varsity coach Kim
Zimmerman said. “The varsity girls were able to watch the
seventh-grade, the eighth-grade and the JV team. They wanted to cheer on the
other girls. It helps them build confidence.”

For Lake Fenton, it’s been a
tough season that has seen the team have as few as four girls on the mat at
one time. But that didn’t keep the Blue Devils from great things on
Saturday. The team posted a first-round score of 206.7, earning them first
place in the Division 3 event immediately. They followed with a Division
3-best 198.7 score in round two and followed that with another top score in
round three (281.6). Lake Fenton’s 687 was just over 49 points better than second-place Goodrich.

“Our scores dropped a bit from the week before but we did a really good
job,” Lake Fenton coach Ashley Latimer
said. “I was very happy. We only had seven on our team. We are small in
numbers but big in heart.”

The team has won titles in each of the last three weeks. The Blue Devils also
took the top spot in their division at the Linden Invitational and at the
Davison Invitational.

“We had only four girls at one time and it’s definitely difficult
when you see teams of 16,” Latimer said. “We only have two
seniors and the rest are freshmen and sophomores. But they want this really
bad right now.”

Linden’s varsity team started slow and
built up to a crescendo. The Eagles were in third place after recording a
first-round score of 202.7. The team improved to second place with the best
score in round two in Division 2 (195.432). The Eagles then followed that up
with the top Division 2 third round score (281.3), earning them the
championship by just more than 11 points with a total score of 679.432.

“It was really exciting,” Zimmerman said. “I think after
the girls found out the other teams won, it inspired them to step it up and
push really hard. After the first round we were in third and we decided we
were not going to walk out in third. They were not going to stand for this,
were inspired and came back.”

Fenton’s varsity team also competed, taking fourth in Division 2. The
Tigers had a total team score of 563.39.

The Linden JV team won the four-team event with a total score of 548.912.
Fenton’s freshmen won its competition with a team score of 242.9.

Linden’s eighth-grade team posted a
team score of 301.9884 and the seventh-graders had a 326.8.