By Dan Shriner
Review Editor
GRAND RAPIDS — Lake Orion’s varsity competitive cheer team showed why they are among the state’s elite teams last week by finishing in fourth place in the Division 1 state championships.
Grandville won the state title and Rochester finished second. Stoney Creek was third.
The Dragons had beaten Grandville in regional competition leading up to the state finals and also beat them earlier in the season in a meet at Lake Orion.
Lake Orion, Rochester and Stoney Creek all compete in the Oakland Activities Association Red Division, proving it is the best and most competitive league in the state.
The differences among the top four teams were miniscule in the subjective judging. Fewer than three points separated first through fourth place.
Lake Orion finished with a total score in three rounds of 783.84. Grandville’s winning score was 786.80. Rochester scored a 785.34 and Stoney Creek finished at 784.28.
The Dragons were fourth after the first round with a score of 234.60. They had the second best round of the eight teams competing in the second round — at 230.24 — to move up to third place overall. In the final round their 319 was fourth best of the eight teams.
‘The girls did an amazing job in this atmosphere. It is very intense and they came out and fought. It came down to only a few points.
‘A top four finish is amazing and I am so proud of these girls. I thought we had three solid rounds.
I’ve always said that is what makes us so strong is that we compete against the best every week. We felt like the OAA Red is the best and it was proven here. ?
Lake Orion also finished fourth in 2014 and in the past 18 years, the Dragons have finished fourth in the state competition six times.
Hills has high hopes that next season, the young lady Dragons will break that routine and move up.
The team was heavily loaded with underclassmen this season. There were only seven seniors on the varsity out of 24 girls.
‘We had three freshmen and eight sophomores here on the team so our future is bright. The girls are proud of what we accomplished,? Hill said.