Sunday, February 13, 2005

COMPETITIVE CHEER

GRAND RAPIDS — For the second outing in a row, Mt. Pleasant's
first two round scores weren't quite what the Oilers expected.

This time, at the 11-team PR Cheer Tournament at the Grand
Rapids DeltaPlex Saturday, against some of the best competition in the state in
Class A, that wouldn't work out for the Oilers, as they finished eighth out of
nine teams.

Chippewa Hills competed and finished fourth out of 15 teams in
the Class B division. The Warriors finished with 667.5 points, 21 points behind
champion Holland Christian.

"We had a strong showing today of our potential,“ said Chippewa Hills coach Jenna Ruddell. "I
think many teams and coaches sat up and took notice of us.“

The Warriors posted the second-highest total in the
competition's third round.

While Mt. Pleasant was able to overcome lower than expected
first- and second-round scores at the Meridian Invitational Thursday, winning
the title, the Oilers couldn't do that after posting 177 and 183 – their
lowest scores of the year – in the first round Saturday, following those
up with a 291 in the third round for a total of 651.

"We weren't real happy with the scores. We've had a lot of
variance in scores. It's baffling how scores can swing like that,“ said Mt.
Pleasant coach Kristi
LaFleur, pointing out that the Oilers beat Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills, a
regional opponent, but finished well behind the rest of the big Class A
programs. "All those schools have some sort of pre-program. It's going to
be necessary for us to have programs at the junior high level, if we're going
to compete at the highest level. We can't keep playing catch-up.“