Sparta cheer narrowly reaches state

Sunday,
March 06, 2005

By Jayson Bussa

The Grand Rapids Press

COOPERSVILLE
-- One point.
That's all that separated Sparta
from either heading home or reaching the state finals.

Sparta rallied from one point back heading
into the final round of the Class B regional finals at Coopersville on
Saturday. The Spartans reach the state finals for the second straight season.

Sparta finished with 699.5 points, just
ahead of Comstock
Park (697). Chippewa
Hills won the regional with 704.5 points.

With only the top two
finishers of regional competition continuing on to the state finals, the third
round proved crucial for Sparta.

With the Spartans' third
round score of 310.5, they slipped past Comstock Park
to advance to the state finals.

"It was close, and both
of our teams did awesome," Sparta
head coach Kensey Doolittle said. "This team has
really grown over the year."

Doolittle has seen her squad
improve during her three years as coach.

The Spartans ended with a
fifth-place finish in the regional tournament in Doolittle's first year in
2003.

Last year, the Spartans
captured a second place finish in regionals and continued to the state finals
where they placed eighth. This year, Doolittle and her team will be shooting
for an even higher finish on March 12.

Sparta finished second in the O-K Rainbow
conference to Holland Christian.

Chippewa Hills coach was
happy with the win, but it didn't come with out some glitches.

"We had a couple
bobbles here and there, which were pretty unexpected," Warriors coach
Jenna Ruddell said. "But in the third round, I couldn't have asked for
anything more."

"Comstock
Park did a really good job against
us," Sparta
cheerleader Heather Jansma said. "I think it was
our attitude that got us this one. We pumped it up a notch today."

Along with Jansma, Tomi Tomson,
Krista Ingersoll and Kari Smith were chosen as
Spartan representatives on the All-Regional Team.

With their trip to the state
finals last year, the Spartans know what they need to do in order to be
successful.

"We know more of what
to expect," Tomson said. "Last year I don't
think we did as good as we should have, but we gave it our all. Hopefully we'll
place better this year."

Cheer regionals

Class A at Kenowa Hills:
Grandville and Rockford
were the two teams that qualified from regional action, with the Bulldogs
topping the charts at 729 points while the Rams tallied 717 points. Mt. Pleasant
finished third with 689.5.

Class B at DeWitt: Lakewood was the
highest-finishing area team in this regional, coming in fourth (665.5) as
Chesaning and Ovid-Elsie captured the two qualifying slots.

Class C at Shelby:
Pewamo-Westphalia (689.5) outdistanced Shelby
(609) by a wide margin as both teams qualified for the state finals. Saranac
was the highest area finisher, coming in third (580).