Adams All Business In Division 1 Title Repeat
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
March 26, 2021
EAST LANSING – Rochester Adams eked out its first Finals championship last year, but this time the Highlanders gave their nerves a little bit of a rest.
Adams posted the best score in all three rounds in Friday’s Division 1 championship competition at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center for a 790.52 total, nearly eight full points better than unexpected runner-up Grandville (782.60).
“We expected to win this year – that was our mindset,” said Claire Crutchfield, one of seven seniors on the Highlanders’ roster.
“Maybe we didn’t think we’d win by that much, but we have been working non-stop since state last year and all of that hard work has paid off.”
Plymouth (782.36) placed third after last year’s runner-up finish, and Grand Blanc (780.30) took fourth.
Adams now has finished either first or second in Division 1 four years in a row, with runner-up finishes in 2018 and 2019.
The Highlanders lost only four seniors off last year’s team and had a strong group of senior leaders this winter. Crutchfield and Olivia Ris are both returning first-team all-staters, Ava Bondra was second team in 2020, Melina Catenucci and Carly Schultz were honorable mention and the other seniors are Maya Dalal and Kennedy Lloyd.
Brooke Miller, who is in her seventh year as Adams coach, said her team’s business-like approach was critical Friday and throughout the season, as it won all but one competition all year.
“We do a lot of visualization and practice keeping our nerves in check,” explained Miller, who is assisted by Jocelyn Welsh, Quin Gonzalez and Alison Keaser. “Then when we get in a pressure situation, it’s kind of business-like. It’s just doing what we do.”
The win also solidified Rochester as the epicenter of Division 1 cheer in Michigan. The city in northern Oakland County has produced five of the past six D1 champions – with Rochester winning in 2016 and 2017 and Rochester Hills Stoney Creek in 2019.
The hardest part of the day for the Highlanders’ seniors was when it ended.
“I’ve never been on a team with a bond like this, so yeah, it was very bittersweet running off that mat for the last time,” said Schultz.
The biggest surprise of the day was Grandville, which didn’t even make the Finals last year and got off to slow start Friday, sitting in sixth place after the first round.
But the Bulldogs kept fighting and moved up to fourth after a solid second round. Then they nailed their third round to vault all the way to second when the final results were announced.
“What a Round 3; we really hit it,” said Grandville coach Julie Smith-Boyd, who is the dean of state cheer coaches in her 40th year. “We didn’t make it to state last year and we have a very young team, so just getting here was a big accomplishment – taking second is fantastic.”
Smith-Boyd has led Grandville to six Finals titles, the most recent in 2015, and now has 10 runner-up finishes.
This season’s may have been the most unanticipated of any of those top finishes, as the Bulldogs had just three seniors, who were also the team’s captains – Chloe Beatty, Ellie Irwin and Charli Sanchez.
Click for full team standings.
PHOTOS: (Top) Rochester Adams celebrates its repeat championship in Division 1 on Friday. (Middle) Grandville rose from sixth after Round 1 to finish runner-up. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
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.