Merrill had its best performance at a state meet on March 1 at the Deltaplex in Grand Rapids, and the reward for the Vandals was the Division 4 state runner-up trophy.

For the fourth straight season, Michigan Center won the meet. But for the first time in three seasons, Pewamo-Westphalia was not runner up. P-W did not qualify for the state meet, and Merrill took advantage.

Michigan Center scored 745.12 to win the championship, while Merrill was a close second with 743.12. Hudson was third at 734.52, Vandercook Lake fourth at 730.928, Breckenridge fifth at 725.96, Houghton Lake sixth, Manistique seventh, and Munising eighth.

Cheerleaders for coach Courtney Schiller’s team were Samantha Brand, Alex Coppens, Paige Glazier, Karli Good, Hannah Harkrader, Vyky Lamblin, Alanna Peake, Megan Playford, and Ashly Rich. Coppens, Glazier, and Peake are seniors.

“I’m super excited,” Peake said. “We just told ourselves we needed to do our best, and if we did our best, we could win. We did our best.”

“I knew they could do this well,” Schiller said. “They haven’t done all three of the rounds this well yet. But this was the day for them to pull it out.”

This marks the best finish for Merrill at the state meet.

“Our third round is always strong consistently,” Schiller said. “We struggled in rounds one and two this year. Sometimes they’re on, and sometimes they’re not. This was the right time to do it. We feel we nailed it in the second round today,” she said.

Merrill was second after round 2 and had the best score in round 3.

“It all came together,” Schiller said. “We’ve had three seniors leading our program, and they’ve been a real strength with their leadership and ability. We also have girls who will be juniors next year stepping up and one senior and some talented freshmen coming in. I’m hoping they’ll keep it going.”

Coppens has been a high school cheerleader four seasons and was optimistic about her team’s prospects entering the meet. “We recently competed against Michigan Center and took second against them,” she said. “We knew if we pushed ourselves to our fullest, we would come out on top. We had confidence in all three rounds. We were ready for all of them.”

“It was helpful we’ve been here four years,” Peake said. “Then you’re not nervous when you go out.

“Everyone is super close, and we try our best for everyone else,” she said.

Overall, Glazier has cheered for seven years. “We were hoping for first, but second feels just as good at this point,” she said. “We worked hard, and we earned it.”

In November, when practices started, Glazier recalls “hoping” that this would be a special team with a special season.

“It gives the middle schoolers a goal so they can be state champions, hopefully,” she said. “We have a pretty good middle school team.

“I love that we were a family and we pushed ourselves and we pushed each other,” Glazier continued.

Breckenridge won the title in 2007 under coach Deb Gaines. Gaines coached again this year, along with Jenna Graham, and had the following team members: 

Harley Conklin, Lena Crowell, Alexandria Gillis, Miranda Smith, Justine Brabaw, Dakota Colthorp, Kaitlyn Corson, Melony Federspiel, Paige Guthrie, Alicia Gutierrez, Katie Mortensen, and Lindsey Reichard.

“They did great today,” Gaines said. “This is our first year back in seven years, and we wanted to come in with three strong rounds, make our mark, and let everyone know we’re back. We did that today.”