Grandville,
Kentwood cheer teams fall short against Rochester at State

Jane
Bos | The Grand Rapids Press, March 8, 2009

East Kentwood competes in Saturday's Division 1 state finals at
DeltaPlex. - (Katy Batdorff | The Grand Rapids Press)

GRAND
RAPIDS -- Grandville's Kelsey Byxbe
hugged the state runner-up trophy and showed true competitive cheer spirit.

"I am never going to
let it go," she said. "It's awesome. It's a good way to end my
senior year."

There was some
disappointment, too, for the Bulldogs after winning the Division 1 state
championship a year ago. But with only five seniors on the team and a
second-place finish to perennial cheer power Rochester on Saturday at DeltaPlex, they
still had reason to smile.

Rochester posted a score of 811.2480 to win
its 12th state championship. Four-time state titlist Grandville, the only
other team besides Rochester to win a Division 1 title, scored
806.0352.

East Kentwood, which placed second in
conference and regionals to Grandville and won the
district, was third with 802.6544. West Ottawa wound up seventh of the eight
teams competing.

"We have a pretty
young team, we have been up and down a little bit this year,
and we went for it today," Grandville coach Julie Smith-Boyd said.

"We did our best. I
thought our first two rounds were some of the best we have done all year. I
just told the girls the runner-up trophy is just as big as the first-place
one."

Unsatisfied
expectations

East Kentwood, too, was hoping for better.

"We had higher
expectations for today," Kentwood coach Stacy Sheler
said, "but we did our best."

According to the five
judges, Rochester was the best team Saturday. It scored the highest in each
of the three rounds.

In the first round,
mainly two jumps, six formations and vocals are judged. The second round must
all be done in unison and is judged on different skills.

The final and third
round, which is 2 1/2 minutes long compared to the first two, which are 1 1/2
minutes, is wide open.

Teams do stunts and
tumbling and hold each other high.

Rochester, which totaled 323.40 in the
third round, was so impressive, even some the judges seated along the floor
who were set to judge the later afternoon divisions jumped up, cheered and
gave each other high-fives.

East Kentwood was second in the third round
with 322.70 and Grandville was third with 320.60.

"Last year, winning
it was so great, and it is not the same as last year," said Brittany Lipkea, a Grandville senior. "We got second, we did
our best. That is what matters."

Added another senior, Alissa Simonte: "I am sad,
but I am glad we finished second. Even though it's not as good as last year,
we did our best."

The other two seniors for
the Bulldogs are Sara Datema and Alyssa Grifhorst.