Serving Greenville,
Belding and Montcalm County,
Michigan since 1854.

Thursday,
February 10, 2005

Central Montcalm eyes spot at state finals

By John Raffel
- Daily News sports editor

STANTON -- Central Montcalm's cheerleading squad finished second at Wednesday's Hornet
Invitational. Team members are confident they'll be heard from in the regionals when they make their bid for an appearance in
next month's state finals.

"I think we did awesome tonight," Central
Montcalm junior Ryah Buck said after
her Hornets ended second among six squads. "We changed a few things and
we did a lot better after we made those changes."

"I thought we did amazingly well," said Central Montcalm senior Molly Russell. "It was our
best score ever. We just want to relax and have some fun."

The first round requires two jumps, the second round focuses on
compulsory moves and the third round includes stunts and mounts.

"I thought we did well in all three rounds," Russell
said. "We're a well rounded team."

This marks Buck's second year on the varsity. She's the only
junior on the squad.

"We're stronger this year," she said, adding that in
upcoming meets "we want to score more points and keep our scores going
up after every meet."

The regionals are slated for March 5
and "will be very competitive," Russell said. "But I think we
can do very well. We'll need to finish in the top three in the regionals for the state finals."

Central Montcalm hopes to make its first state finals appearance next month.

"If any team can make it, this one can," Russell said.