East Kentwood wins own cheer
invitational

Sunday,
February 05, 2006

By Dean
Holzwarth

The Grand Rapids Press

KENTWOOD -- Regionals for competitive cheer
are four weeks away, but local teams already are trying to generate momentum.

A pair of state-ranked teams used
Saturday's Falcon Fest at East Kentwood as a
tuneup, taking top honors in their respective
classes.

Host East
Kentwood earned the title in Class A with a three-round score of
728, and Holland Christian was victorious in Class B with a 710.8 final
score.

"We
are where we want to be right now, but we want to build on this because we're
nervous about regionals," said East Kentwood co-coach Stacy Sheler,
whose team is ranked No. 4 in Class A. "We're coaching for regionals right now. We want to our best at every
invitational, but we also want to do our best so we're prepared for regionals."

Holland Christian coaches Peggy and
Beth Lintemuth said they were thrilled with their
team's performance, but remain focused on getting ready for a repeat trip to
the state finals.

The Maroons placed second last
season and are currently the third-ranked team in Class B.

"I was very pleased and the
girls did very well, but there's always room for improvement and we're not
done getting better," Peggy Lintemuth said.
"We just want to see our scores maintain consistency or get higher and
they were pretty consistent from what we've done throughout the season
today."

Both squads had to get past rival
state-ranked teams. East Kentwood beat second-place West Ottawa (719.2) and
the Maroons defeated Wyoming
Park (685.2).

The Falcons collected their fourth tournament
championship of the season.

"We did our best and performed
the best we could," East Kentwood
senior Danielle Mowry said. "And we ended up
on top."

Added teammate Shaina
Smith: "We left everything on the mat and we had no regrets. We went out
and had fun with it today."

Sheler, who coaches with her sister,
Stephanie, said a grueling week of preparation paid off.

"We had a long week of
practices and we got a lot done and I think it showed today," Stacy Sheler said. "They did awesome and they did
everything we wanted them to do."

In Class C, Montague (567.5) held
off runner-up Calvin Christian (528) for the win.