Maroons, Panthers advance to cheer finals

Staff Reporters | February 28, 2009

Holland, MI — The Holland
Christian and West Ottawa competitive cheer teams won’t
miss the state finals again.

Both teams qualified for their respective state meets Saturday after not
advancing past the regional round last year.

West Ottawa recorded a third-place score of 791.9192 points in the Division 1
regional at Brighton, while Holland Christian posted a second-place total of
768.5338 points at the Division 3 regional at Coopersville.

The state finals are Saturday at the DeltaPlex in Grand Rapids.

“It’s been four years since we’ve been to state,” West Ottawa coach Kristine Brandt
said. “We’re really excited about going.”

The Maroons missed last year’s state meet after struggling with
injuries.

“It was really hard to pull it together last year,” said Darlene Draisma, who coaches Holland Christian along with Beth
Cunningham. “We’ve come really far since Aug. 9 when we started
with sideline cheer. We’re getting better every day.”

Comstock Park won the Division 3
regional with a three-round total of 800.5104. Both teams will compete in the
7:30 p.m. state finals.

The top four teams in each region advance to state.

“We’ve gotten really picky the last few weeks with our
routines,” said Draisma, whose team has a
roster of five seniors — Sarah Ebels, Kelly
Marsman, Brittani Slenk,
Katelyn VerHage and Crista
Woods.

“They finally had their peak performance in all three rounds. We got
our high scores of the season in all three rounds. We are really pleased with
the girls.”

West
Ottawa finished third in its 12-team regional behind O-K Red
Conference rivals Grandville and East Kentwood, respectively.

The Panthers had rounds of 227.7, 246.518 and 317.7 points. They will compete
at 9 a.m. Saturday at their
state meet.

“They’re very talented athletically,” Brandt said,
referring to a roster that includes seniors Taylor Bosman,
Monica Harrington, Lauren Lee and Erin McGovern. “Beyond that, they
have the drive to success. Every day, we work on those little things that
will make us a better team.

“The focus of our team was great. There was some tremendous talented
surrounding them. We said focus on ourselves to make sure we do every can we
can to put the best three rounds on the mat, so the judges would see
that.”