The Cedar Springs Varsity Competitive Cheer team took first at both Comstock Park and Forest Hills Northern.

Saturday, January 7, brought all three Cedar Springs competitive cheer teams to Comstock Park for the Comstock Park cheer invitational. In total there were 12 middle school teams, six JV teams and 24 Varsity teams, in which our varsity competed for first place against seven district teams.
Cedar Springs middle took second place with a round 2 score of 135.08 and a round 3 score of 284.3, bringing them a total score of 419.38.

Cedar Springs JV took first place with a round 1 score of 180.7, a round 2 score of 147.3 and a round 3 score of 243.7, bringing them to an overall total of 571.94.

Cedar Springs Varsity took first place with a round 1 score of 211.6, a round 2 score of 216..28 and a round 3 score of 264.4, bringing them an overall total of 692.28.

On Monday, January 9, the JV & Varsity traveled to FHN for their first conference meet of the season.

Cedar Springs JV brought home another first place finish with a final score of 566.90. Coach Katy Hradsky said, “I am very proud of my team and their first conference performance. Since we are the only JV team in our conference our goal is to be ourselves and improve every week. I would have to say that the girls did just that! This is a very talented group of athletes. I can’t wait to see where the season takes them.”

Cedar Springs Varsity also brought home another first place finish with the final score of 738.48 and some of their highest scores of the season.

Coach Anne Olszewski said, “I am very proud of them. This is only the fourth meet of the season and we are scoring above 725! If we can continue to improve and maintain our work ethic, I am very hopeful for state finals at the Delta Plex in March!”

The next competition will be Saturday, January 14, at Wyoming Middle school at 1 p.m.

This past week was a busy one for both Cedar Springs Competitive Cheer teams.  For the JV team, it marked the end of their season as they competed at the conference final meet at West Catholic. The JV team had a remarkable season as they won their 4th conference meet earning them the title of Ok Blue Conference JV Champs for the 2nd year in a row. They won every competition they competed in this year except for one where they placed 2nd behind Division 1 Grandville JV.
The Varsity team finished in 2nd place for the OK Blue Conference meet behind Comstock Park. The competition between Cedar Springs, Sparta, and Forest Hills Northern has been pretty intense all season during the OK Blue conference meets. The same held true at conference finals where they all finished within tenths of points of each other. Sparta finished with a 760.9, Cedar had a 760.2, and Forest Hills had a 760.1.
“I have never been in a competition where several teams finished so close within tenths of points like we did at the conference finals,” remarked Coach Pamela Ingles. “It definitely was a good competition, but also very nerve racking when you are waiting for the final scores to be posted to see where everyone stands.”
The Varsity team also competed at the Delta Plex on Saturday, February 12.  There were several teams that they could potentially compete against at the Regional competition and also State Finals. The Delta Plex is where State Finals is held, so it is a great competition to get the varsity girls in the arena where they are hoping to be in just a couple of weeks. They competed against 15 Division 2 teams and finished the competition in 5th place. They will continue to work hard all week to make all 3 rounds the best they have been all season to compete at the District Competition at Kenowa Hills on Saturday, February 19 at 10:00. The top 4 teams will advance to the Regional competition next week at GR Christian.  Please come out and support the Varsity Cheerleaders at the District competition.

This past week has been a roller coaster of emotions for both the JV and Varsity Competitive Cheer teams.  Thursday, Cedar Springs hosted an invitational for 14 teams.  With the craziness of preparing the High School for a competition that is hosting 14 JV and Varsity teams to warming up all 3 rounds to compete in front of their home crowd, it tends to lend itself to a very busy night.  The Varsity team competed against several teams that they will compete against at their district competition in just a few weeks and finished the night with the first place title.  The JV team did a great job, but Grandville’s JV team, a D1 team, edged the Red Hawks out of the first place title as the JV finished in 2nd place.
On Saturday, the Varsity Competitive Cheer team traveled to East Kentwood for the LMCCOA Scholarship meet.  As the weeks are winding down, the teams are starting to prepare for the upcoming post-season meets. This competition resembled a mini district competition because of the number of teams they competed against that will be in their district at Kenowa Hills HS on February 19.
“It was a close competition right from the beginning. Nine teams were separated by 10 points. There is not much room for error when scores are that close,”  said Coach Pam Ingles.
After round 1 was finished, the Red Hawks were in 7th place and had a lot of work to do to move up.  They managed to move up to 4th place after round 2, and Sparta was in 1st place going into round 3 by about 4 points.  Round 3 would have to be solid and the question remained, “Would it be enough to move up?”
After round 3 was finished, the announcer read the scores. The Red Hawks waited to hear when their name would be called and each time another school was called the excitement grew. It finally came down to the top 2 teams.  The 2nd place spot went to Kenowa Hills and the Red Hawks had managed to propel themselves to the 1st place title after having a great round 3 with their highest score of the season in round 3 – 302.5.
“Saturday was a day filled with both fear and excitement.  There was that feeling of discouragement when we found out we were in 7th place. Then, sitting there hand in hand with our teammates when they called “1st place goes to….Cedar Springs” was a feeling of empowerment and relief that we reached the top together, as one team!” remarked Junior Kelli Markosky.
With only three weeks left until the district competition, there are still a lot of things that need to be cleaned up to accomplish their goal of making it through the district competition, the regional competition and then onto State Finals.  Both teams will be competing at Kenowa Hills on Saturday at 10:00.