Wyoming Park wins Grandville Invitational in
first meet of season

Thursday,
January 20, 2005By Steve Ungrey

The Grand Rapids Press

WYOMING -- Lindsay Aman
sat with her Wyoming
Park competitive cheer
team as the results of the Grandville Invitational were announced.

The Vikings were
competing in their first tournament of the season, so there were no past
results to compare. Wyoming
Park's initial score
would set the bar for improvement for the rest of the season.

It turned out the Vikings
started out strong. With 643 points, they muscled past second-place Allendale
(620) to take the Division 2 championship.

"I was really
shocked," Aman said. "We've been working
hard this year in practices and everything's paid off. This makes us more
confident for the rest of the year."

Tournament championships
are nice, but co-coach Erin Neitzel's goal is to
have the scores improve with each meet.

"We're going to run
into schools that are stronger than we are," said Neitzel,
who coaches along with Lisa Radle. "But the attitudes
of these girls are great."

Like her girls, Neitzel was surprised at the first-place finish.

"We had nothing to
compare this to," Neitzel said. "We've
been practicing really hard this week to prepare for the West
Ottawa tournament. As long as we can improve the scores with
each tournament, we'll be happy."

Wyoming Park's score decreased in the West
Ottawa Invitational, as the Vikings finished second in Class B with 610.5
points. St. Joseph
won the B competition, with 629 points.

The Vikings are without
six seniors from a year ago, with a team that only has two juniors and seven
sophomores and eight freshmen.

"Most of the team is
new," said sophomore Ashley Harrngton said.
"We're young, but we've got a lot of goals we want to accomplish."

The Vikings came in
fourth in O-K Conference Tier 2 competition a year ago. Sophomore Lauren DeYoung believes the chances are good for success.

"We've got a lot of
the juniors and sophomores teaching the maneuvers and I think things are
progressing well," DeYoung said.

© 2005 Grand Rapids Press.
Used with permission

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