Pewamo-Westphalia came heartbreakingly close to a Division 4 state championship in competitive cheer. But in the end, Michigan Center prevailed for first place, while Merrill sneaked in for fourth.
Michigan Center trailed Pewamo-Westphalia 225.3-223.6 after the first round but burst ahead after the second round 453.3-446.3. When the third round ended, Michigan Center was still in first place 759.9-755.3.
Hudson was third with 742.4 and Merrill fourth with 729.2.
The Pirates had a relatively small and young team, with seniors Alissa Klein and Amanda Simon; junior Brianne Schafer; and freshmen Jillian Jegla, Kelseah Trimmer, Marylou Hengesbach, Kim English, and Hannah Trierweiler.
Simon was in her third varsity season and thinks that expectations might have been higher a season ago.
“We have such a small team, and I didn’t have high expectations [this season],” she said. “They exceeded my expectations so much. We worked so hard. I’m so proud of them. We wanted to win.”
Second place this season “was a big achievement for all of us,” Simon said.
Klein said the team’s goal during preseason was simply to make it to the state finals.
“At one point, I was thinking I’d be so happy to finish eighth at state,” Klein said. “We had five freshmen. It happened so fast. We got better and better. The next thing you know is that we’re really good.
“The freshmen really pushed themselves and they’re very talented. All three rounds were very strong.”
Coach Staci Myers was in her fifth year coaching the Pirates. “I’m so proud of my girls; they did awesome,” she said. “We have a very young team We have five freshmen and they always gave it 100 percent. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. We hit it in every single round today. That’s all we were looking to do.”
The Pirates did have first place in mind, Myers admitted. “But as long as we went out there and did every single round and did it perfect like we did, we were happy with it. We were awesome and I couldn’t be prouder. I was happy with every single round. We hit everything perfectly in round 3. They hit all their stunts.
It was the second straight year that P-W has finished second in Division 4. Myer’s team won the title in 2008 and in 2010 and was second in 2007. When the Pirates were in Class C, they were second five times and first place six times.
“Right in the middle of the season, we started to get to know them and the girls mesh well,” Myers said. “It takes awhile to know everybody and how they’ll work together. Then, during the middle of the season, we knew this was going to be an awesome good group of girls to work with. They’re very hard working. We had great leaders to work with.”
The future definitely looks bright for P-W.
Merrill, with 223.7 points, was actually in second place after the first round, 0.1 point ahead of Michigan Center . But after the second round, Merrill slipped to fifth place and had to rally in the third round to finish fourth.
Courtney Schiller was in her eighth season as coach with Merrill and also had a very young team with senior Caitlin Mason; sophomores Alexis Coopens, Paige Glazier, Katelynn Moulton, Alanna Peake, and Megan Rich; and freshman Vyky Lamblin.
“We’re satisfied with fourth place,” Schiller said. “Our round 2 is kind of our weaker round and we fell behind in that. But we’re really happy with our performance and improvement from last year.”
“Every team comes in hoping to win,” Schiller said. “We’re competitive and we have won most of our competition this year. There’s always the hope in the back of your mind that you win the competition. Only one team goes home with the state championship. We’re not disappointed by any means with fourth. We’re happy to have accomplished what we did.”
Don’t be surprised if Merrill is a solid contender for next year’s state title.
“I’m only losing one senior,” Schiller said. “Everybody else will be back, and we have a strong middle school group coming up.”
Mason was the only senior on the squad and was enthusiastic about with the team’s finish, which was two spots better than last year’s sixth place.
“We just wanted to go out and do our best,” she said. “Round 1 and Round 3 are both every good.”
It was Mason’s fourth year on varsity.
“I’ve cheered with all these girls, except one, for like the past two years and when they were in middle school,” she said. “We’re like family.”