Revived Breckenridge Returns to Elite
March 7, 2015
By Dean Holzwarth
Special for Second Half
GRAND RAPIDS – The rebuilding process has been completed for the Breckenridge competitive cheer team.
After six years without a program due to low numbers, the Huskies returned to the top after dominating Saturday’s Division 4 Competitive Cheer Final at The DeltaPlex.
The Huskies finished with a three-round score of 754.1 and collected their eighth MHSAA title in school history.
Pewamo-Westphalia placed runner-up at 730.40, while Michigan Center’s streak of four Finals titles in a row ended with its third-place finish (726.02).
“We all knew that our goal was to win another state championship and we completely exceeded our expectations of this year,” all-state sophomore Alexandria Gillis said. “And we’re all really proud of each other.”
Breckenridge was able to compete with a full varsity squad last season for the first time in seven years and advanced to the Finals, where they placed fifth.
Deb Gaines, who co-coached with Jenna Graham, guided the team to its last Finals title in 2007 before the hiatus.
“I retired and went back to recruiting at the lower levels to start it back up,” Gaines said. “We kind of ran out of girls, the middle school program kind of fizzled and we just didn’t have enough high school kids at that point.
“We started rebuilding all those years ago, and now they’ve grown up and here we are. It’s a great feeling, and they did great. We still have a pretty young team.”
Breckenridge set the tone early and posted the Final’s high scores in every round en route to a comfortable advantage.
It scored 229.10 in Round 1 and 216.46 in Round 2. The Pirates capped off the day with a 308.70 in Round 3.
“We knew it was going to be our last performance, so we wanted to go out there and give it our all and leave it all on the mat,” Gillis said. “Leave no doubts that we didn’t do everything we could do. We went out there and fought for it.”
The Huskies led P-W by almost 15 points entering the final round, a sizable margin built by a pair of nearly flawless routines.
“When we make up our cheers, it’s all about the meaning of the cheer and what they’re saying,” Gaines said. “You mean what you say and say what you mean, and vocally they really pushed that out and everything else followed. They gained a lot of confidence the last three weeks starting at Districts and into Regionals. We saw it coming and coming.”
Graham said the final round proved to be the icing on the cake.
“We’ve had a strong Round 3 all season so they knew when the time came, if we hit it, we were going to get there,” Graham said. “They did awesome.”
It was the 10th Finals runner-up finish in school history for P-W, but it was a satisfying accomplishment after narrowly missing the Finals last season by one spot at Regionals.
The Pirates placed runner-up three straight years (2011-13) after winning the Division 4 Final in 2010.
“They were super excited, determined and worked very hard all year to get here again,” P-W coach Staci Myers said. “It was a goal just to make it and let the chips fall where they may. They just wanted to come today and perform to the best of their ability, and they were going to let where we fell where we fell.”
Myers said this year’s group, led by six seniors, improved as the season progressed.
“We did the best we could in every round (today) and they’ve improved every week,” she said. “This is the best they’ve done all year long, and they definitely peaked at the right time. We’re really proud of them for working so hard these last two weeks and just to get here has been amazing.”
Breckenridge will have the luxury of returning everyone next season in its bid to repeat. There were no seniors on this year’s team.
Instead, seven juniors, five sophomores and four freshmen paved the way.
“It’s an amazing feeling to know that everybody’s going to be back because we can get stronger with the same people we’ve had,” Gillis said.
Click for full results.
PHOTOS: (Top) Breckenridge cheerleaders hoist their championship trophy Saturday. (Middle) Pewamo-Westphalia added another top Finals finish at this season’s Division 4 meet.
Cheer Finals: Favorites, Now Winners
March 4, 2012
GRAND RAPIDS – The MHSAA Division 2 Competitive Cheer Final came down Saturday to the top two ranked teams at the end of the regular season.
Gibraltar Carlson can almost claim a permanent home in the top spot.
No. 2 Dearborn Divine Child put on the pressure at the Grand Rapids Delta Plex. But the Marauders tied Divine Child with the meet’s highest Round 3 score to hold on to a 2.9 point advantage and claim their fourth championship in five seasons with a final score of 807.3944.
“It was absolutely mind-blowing,” Carlson senior Paige Arrington said.
“Our team is so close. We’re more of a family. We’re with each other nine months of the year through sideline and competitive, and they’re my sisters and my family. I have 24 sisters and a couple of moms with my coaches.”
Those coaches – Christina Wilson and Danielle Jokela – had to guide the Marauders through their toughest championship run since 2008 (not counting 2010, when Carlson finished runner-up to Allen Park.
The Marauders scored the meet’s top Round 1 and 2 scores, but still had to hang in for that Round 3 tie.
“It was not easy for us to come out on top today. We had to fight it out,” Wilson said.
Jokela added, “We have nine seniors who really contributed to making this come true.”
Division 3
Richmond began this season as a continuation of last, when the Blue Devils courageously finished Division 3 runner-up despite losing an athlete to a torn knee ligament five minutes into Finals warm-up. 
Top-ranked all season, the Devils succeeded in not starting over – complete with prepping in the same Delta Plex locker room Saturday as in 2011 and warming up on the same mat where their teammate was injured.
“Last year when one of our girls was injured, we fell back a little in the third round and that’s why we came in second,” Richmond senior Alana Timmerman said. “But this year we conquered our fears and took over. … We’re really a superstitious team, but we had to face that.”
No problem. Richmond posted the top Division 3 score in all three rounds to claim its first MHSAA title with a score of 781.838 – 16 points better than runner-up and reigning champion Comstock Park.
“Third, third, second, first. What more could you ask for?” said senior Kelsey Kasom, listing off the Devils’ Final finishes of the last four seasons. “We’ve pretty much taken everything, gone through every single thing a team doesn’t want to go through and need to go through to get where we are.”
“All year, we’ve been doing our best to critique the little things. We’ve been working on every little step,” senior Melissa Graham added. “We came into this year and said we were going to start off where we left off last year. So we weren’t coming in with a new team and a new mindset. We wanted to start where our skills were last year and work to get better.”
Division 4
Michigan Center senior Michaela Haller spoke Saturday of a rough patch her team went through when she was a sophomore in 2010 – the season the Cardinals took only third place at the MHSAA Finals.
But compared to how her team fared her other three seasons, that sentiment is understandable. 
Haller and eight other seniors capped off an incredible run by claiming their third Division 4 championship in four seasons, this time with a score of 759.944 to finish four points ahead of rival Pewamo-Westphalia. The two finished 1-2 at the District and Regional as well.
“I never dreamed my freshman year, or even after we won freshman year, that we’d do it two more times or that I’d leave being a state champion,” Haller said. “We went through a rough patch sophomore year, and after that my team just grew. Since then, every day we just get stronger.
“I feel like we definitely worked our way to where we are.”
Michigan Center finished second to Pewamo-Westphalia in both Rounds 1 and 3. But the Cardinals bested the Pirates by eight points in Round 2 to set up a cushion that held to the end.
“I knew they had it in them. … They’re poised, composed, and the experience definitely helps because they’ve been here, know what to expect and know how to get the job done,” Michigan Center coach Jessica Trefry said.
“I have some underclassmen that have stepped up already into leadership positions, are already grooming themselves to be in that position for next year. I really am not worried about leadership; I know it’s going to be there next year.”
Click for full results for all four Finals, and for coverage of Friday’s Division 1 meet.