Rochester Arrives Again on Top of D1
March 4, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
GRAND RAPIDS – Rochester’s run to a 14th MHSAA competitive cheer championship wasn’t as smooth as the build up to number 13 a year ago.
Of course, that’s almost always going to be the case when comparing to a perfect run like the Falcons enjoyed during 2015-16, when they won all of their competitions.
But a few bumps along the way this winter made Rochester’s latest addition to its record title total special as well. A team that usually doesn’t pull up underclassmen had five. The Falcons had 15 seniors two seasons ago and 13 last winter, but only eight this time. There were only 23 athletes total on the team, making it the school’s smallest since 2000. And by Dec. 10, another perfect run was out of reach, after a third place at an invitational at Stoney Creek won by Sterling Heights Stevenson, Friday’s Division 1 Final runner-up, with 16 more points than Rochester scored that day.
“What happened last year was very out of the ordinary. That was a huge blessing for us,” Rochester senior Megan McMurray said. “This year was a little more of a normal path that we usually take. We did place low in a few competitions, but we rose every time that we fell, and our main goal was just to blast it out during our playoffs, and we did just that. And we got the results (again) that we got last year.”
Rochester won Friday’s Final at the Grand Rapids DeltaPlex with a score of 789.02, nearly two points ahead of Stevenson and four more than the rest of the field. That overall score was the third highest posted in Division 1 this season, and the Falcons’ Round 3 total of 320.70 tied its division-best score set earlier this winter.
And it made Rochester a repeat champion for the first time since finishing a three-season run at the top in 2007. This is the fourth time the Falcons have strung together multiple championships since winning the first three Class A Finals from 1994-96, and it’s something that’s becoming increasingly difficult at the Division 1 level as the state’s biggest schools continue to close the gap.
For example: As longtime coach Susan Wood noted, all eight teams Friday hit their Round 3 routines – and that made the Falcons unsure if they had scored enough to pull off the title.
It’s almost tradition for teams to leave the mat after Round 3 and fold into hugs and sometimes tears. Last season, the Falcons did so knowing they’d clinched; this time, McMurray said, those tears came from pulling off a routine that Wood had designed even tougher than a year ago – and even though McMurray and her teammates weren’t sure if they had the title in hand.
That refusal to “water down” the difficulty, even for a newer group like this one, is part of Wood’s philosophy. It can come with a little higher risk – but paid off again Friday with the highest reward.
“Cheerleaders do millions of repetitions of things over and over and over again to get the muscle memory where it needs to be, but with this group we had to be very mentally tough to do it,” said Wood, who has led the team 36 seasons and to all of its championships. “Because physically, I think a lot of these teams are the same. But mental toughness in newer kids is harder to pull out – so that was one of our big battles.”
The seniors – including three-year varsity athletes McMurray, Sydney Asuncion and Sam Ellison – tried to prepare their younger teammate that this might be a rockier road than the perfect recent past.
In McMurray’s words, the Falcons “understood that this was going to be a completely different journey.”
But the team started hitting all of its three rounds at the Oakland Activities Association Red finale Feb. 4, finishing five points better than a field including eventual Division 1 finalists Stoney Creek, Rochester Adams and Lake Orion.
“We were always physically capable of doing things, but a lot of the younger girls were a little bit shy and timid, so a lot of the seniors had to get them out of their shells, make some great personal connections,” McMurray said. “By the end of the season we were in full grind, kicking it, ready to go.
“It felt amazing to be part of the team that brought it back last year. It feels even more amazing to be the team that’s keeping it going.”
But one opponent that should make that streak harder to continue is Stevenson, which tied its best finish ever with its first runner-up performance since taking second in 2011. And the Titans did so with only one senior on the team – and nine freshmen competing.
Stevenson’s score of 787.06 was its best this season by two points, and its Round 3 320.20 was just a half point shy of Rochester’s meet and season best.
The Titans finished seventh two seasons ago and third in 2016.
“We had that uphill battle right from the start, which makes this even sweeter,” said coach Brianna Verdoodt of preparing her young roster. “The amount of work and push and dedication and the grit that went into getting them here. The real, real hard work was put in this year. So now it’s just starting off and keeping things fresh. We watched them truly become a team over the year … this was the best day they’ve had as a team, even off the mat as well.”
Grandville, last season’s runner-up, finished third at 785.34. Stoney Creek was fourth at 783.10 and Rochester Adams, at the Finals for the first time since 1997, finished fifth at 782.66. Hudsonville, Lake Orion and Brighton rounded out the standings.
PHOTOS: (Top) Rochester performs during Friday's Division 1 Final at the DeltaPlex. (Middle) A Grandville cheerleader is raised by her teammates during their round.
NorthPointe Making Good on Potential with Chance to Keep Promise Up Next
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
February 20, 2025
GRAND RAPIDS – Ashlyn Bey felt uneasiness as she entered Montabella High School for last Saturday’s Division 4 Competitive Cheer District.
It was a return to the spot that abruptly ended her season a year ago.
“I definitely thought about it as we were driving there,” the Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian junior said. “I was thinking that this is when my season stopped last year, and just being at the same school didn’t help.
“I psyched myself out a lot when I went back there, but honestly it was a lot better than I thought it would be.”
Bey suffered a broken left hand in last year’s District while performing a tumble during the team’s Round 3 routine.
“It was interesting that it was at the same place,” NorthPointe Christian coach Sue Smith said. “She had to walk past the athletic trainers’ door when we were going on the mat, where she was in so much pain. She said that it was hard to go in and remember all of that, but she did great. It didn’t faze her on the mat, and she did fantastic.”
Bey’s injury required two surgeries and kept her off the mat for nine months.
“It was definitely pretty tough because I spend a lot of time on (competitive cheer), and I was upset that I couldn’t work on it and get better,” Bey said. “But I also think it was good for me to step away a little bit.”
Bey, the team’s top flyer, has helped the Mustangs emerge as one of the top contenders in Division 4 this season. NorthPointe is seeking a Finals berth this weekend.
“It was really exciting to come back because I could start new, but it was also a little irritating because I was back to square one,” Bey said. “It’s been going pretty good, and I feel like I’m where I was before and doing even better.”
Smith also has been thrilled to have one of her team leaders back in the fold.
“She didn’t get cleared until right before the season, and she's really gone through a lot with the two operations,” Smith said. “She’s phenomenal, and one of the best athletes I've ever worked with.”
Both Bey and her team have motivation for a triumphant comeback story.
The Mustangs have fallen short at Regionals the past three years. They made three consecutive appearances in the Final from 2019-21, placing sixth during their most recent trip.
They missed out on advancing last season by eight hundredths of a point, placing fifth at the Regional, while also finishing two points shy of the top four in 2023.
Smith said the team made a commitment to fulfilling a promise after last year’s disappointing outcome.
“They were on the mat afterwards and they were all crying, but they all said that they were going to work really hard and they were going to get it next year,” Smith said. “Instead of being upset, they were motivated, and I thought that was awesome. And this team has done amazing things.”
The near-misses from the past two seasons have fueled the Mustangs’ desire, and success has followed with the return of several key returners.
They finished second to Division 2 Fruitport in the Ottawa-Kent Conference Silver and finished runner-up at their District. They’ve also broken several school records.
“I feel like this team is doing so well and I feel like we are going to do great at Regionals,” Bey said. “We had a lot of motivation from last year, and we’ve been so close so many times that I feel like this is the year. I think we are going to make it to state.”
NorthPointe Christian’s small roster of 10 athletes will need to finish among the top four Saturday at West Catholic High School in order to advance to the Division 4 Final.
“We’re really hoping to make it this year with basically the same girls from last year and I think this team can do it, but there is really good competition out there,” Smith said. “We are working hard this week and our goal is the top four and making it to state. We would love to win, but that would be a bonus. I think they can do it.”
The last few years has been a rebuilding process for Smith, whose numbers dwindled in 2021 due to COVID-19 even though the Mustangs still qualified for the Final that season.
It’s been a steady climb back as improvements have been made across all three rounds in an attempt to raise scores.
“We’re pretty solid in every round, but my favorite is Round 3,” Smith said. “We’ve developed their tumbling over the years, and it's one of our biggest strengths. It’s an exciting, fast-paced round with something always going on, and I love it.
“The girls told me that Round 2 was their favorite, and we’ve made it more of an actual routine with every single skill having a new formation. We’ve had our best scores in Round 2, consistently over 200, and it’s been exciting for them.”
The Mustangs’ roster also includes Lindsay Ulstad, Riley Paulk, Addie Bey, Bella Barnett, Marlo Harrall, Emily Vander Woude, Evie Bast, Genesis Bradenburg and Issabell Barr.
Dean Holzwarth has covered primarily high school sports for Grand Rapids-based WOOD-TV for five years after serving at the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years along with shorter stints at the Ionia Sentinel and WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties.
PHOTOS Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian competes this season at Grand Rapids Northview. (Photos courtesy of the NorthPointe competitive cheer program.)