Cardinals
chasing Hudson

Sunday,
February 05, 2006

By Jake
Lloyd

[email-masked]
-- 789-1250

For the third consecutive week, the
Michigan Center
High School competitive cheer team
competed in the same invitational as Hudson.

And for the third straight week, Hudson gave the Cardinals a glimpse of what Michigan Center's team is trying to become.

The host Cardinals scored a 640.3
to place second in the Class C-D competition of their invitational behind Hudson, which put up
696.2 points. In the Class A-B competition Stockbridge put up 555.2 points to
finish second behind Tecumseh, which scored a 593.3. Columbia Central placed
third with 548.5 points.

Hudson has won three straight meets, topping third-place Michigan Center by just 17 points two weeks ago
and by 64 points in a 1-2 finish last weekend at the Hudson Invitational.

The Cardinals hung tough early in
their own gym, trailing just 197-192.5 after the first round. But Hudson put some distance
between the two squads with a near-flawless 213.2-point second round that
gave the Tigers a commanding 45-point lead heading into the stunt round.

Michigan Center
struggled a bit in the final round but still managed a 275.5, which was third
to Hudson's 286 and Colon's 284.

"That's not normal for
us," Michigan
Center coach Jessica Trefry said of her team's mistakes. "But they
recovered well, which was the important part."

Trefry knows that the more Michigan Center
competes against tough teams like Hudson,
the better the Cardinals should become.

"You're never going to improve
unless one, you improve your own scores, and two, it definitely helps going
against better teams, because you see where you need to be," Trefry said. "It gives my girls more confidence to
know that they can come close.

"(Hudson's) tumbling is as near perfect as
you can be, and their hand springs are beautiful. And they nailed their back
tucks (in the second round)."

Hudson was ranked third in last week's
Class C-D state poll, and Michigan
Center was fourth.

The two teams will not see each
other again until the regional meet at Michigan Center
on March 4.

In Trefry's
five years as coach, the Cardinals have never defeated the Tigers, including
four times at the regional. She knows it would take a very solid all-around
performance to make it happen.

"They just have to be cleaner
in everything," Trefry said. "They have
to put it all together on one day."

Napoleon placed sixth in the Class
C-D competition, Grass Lake was ninth and Manchester took 10th.