Rochester, Athens tops at Cougars Spirit Invite

BY DAN STICKRADT

STAFF WRITER

In a preview of things
to come, only the best will survive the area's competitive cheer juggernaught.

Several area schools,
many who will compete in the upcoming OAA Division I league meet and Class A
regional during the next six weeks, were on hand Wednesday night at Rochester
Stoney Creek for play in the inaugural Cougars Spirit Invitational.

Defending state
champion and top-ranked Rochester
put on quite an early-season display, topping the nine-school field with
706.8 points in the three-round competition. League rivals Troy Athens,
Stoney Creek, Lake Orion and Troy
grabbed the next four spots with only 27 points separating that group.

Athens, ranked eighth,
escaped from the pack to claim second with 671 points, followed by Stoney
Creek (646), Lake Orion (644) and Troy (608.4) in the top five. Oxford claimed seventh (561.9) and North
Farmington was eighth (488) to round out area schools.

Rochester held a 12-point lead
over Athens
after the first round and that advantage ballooned up to 30.8 points entering
the final round. But the Red Hawks and the other three league rivals all
stayed close throughout. In the final round, Athens
picked up 289 points -- only five behind Rochester
-- while Lake Orion
(272.5), Stoney Creek (267.5) and Troy
(271) were off the mark.

"The team
performed really well," said Athens
coach Stephanie Brodsky of her team's best showing to date. "We weren't
happy with how we scored at the Oxford Invitational last week, so the girls
have been on fire this week, waiting for a second chance on the mat."

At the upcoming
regional competition at Lake
Orion on March 4, only
the top two finishers will survive for a state finals berth. Last season
Stoney Creek edged both Lake Orion and Athens
by less than 10 points to finish second. Rochester has won 11 straight regional
crowns.

"I knew it was
going to be close (from second to fourth)," offered Nancy
deAvila, Lake
Orion's head coach.
"Rochester was typical Rochester for the first two rounds, and
even they had a little slip-up in the third round. But they still looked
good.

"The next group of teams, all from our league, were pretty close.
But Athens
looked the best out of them," added deAvila.
"Their third round was really good.

"We switched our
third round up some just a couple of day before, so we weren't as strong as
we could have been," she continued. "We're working on improving
that round. We'll see all of these teams several more times before the
regional, so we have time to improve."

Rochester, Athens,
Stoney Creek, Troy, Lake
Orion and Oxford
will be part of a 15-school regional March 4 at Lake Orion.
Several area schools were set to compete Saturday at the Lake Orion
Invitational.

Originally published January 29, 2006