Big day for West and East (08/23/04)

INDIANAPOLIS — A few moments, along with the words you’ve been waiting to hear, can change things a lot.

As Jay County’s four cheerleading squads stood in a giant circle on the grandstand track waiting for results to be announced, West Jay eighth grader Dannie Grant could hardly breath. Holding hands with teammates Jennifer Buckland and Jessica Beaty, she bounced up and down, taking short, rapid gasps of air.

But, within seconds, her nervous bouncing turned into jumps of joy and Grant had plenty of air to let out an excited scream. And so did every other member of the West Jay squad.

In just their second year of competition at the Indiana State Fair, the Eagles placed third in the junior high division. It was a huge jump after West Jay finished out of the top 10 in 2003.

“It was a pretty nice comeback from last year — from not placing to being in the top three,” said Grant. “This is the biggest highlight of my life. Last year I was a little embarrassed, but this year I’m proud to be from West Jay.”

West Jay’s call for third place was followed quickly by East Jay’s second place award, giving Jay County two of the top three junior high squads in the state. Eastside’s eighth grade group took the junior high title.

“I’m so happy,” said East Jay eighth grader Gabi Stout of her squad’s finish. “First would have been wonderful, but second feels just as good. I couldn’t feel any better.”

East Jay, which has nine sixth graders on the 20-person squad, set the standard for the day as it was clearly the best of the first four squads on the mat. Eastside made itself a contender two squads later, and West Jay was also impressive as it competed near the end of the junior high grouping.

The Chiefs scored 234 points, getting scores of 79, 78 and 77 from the three judges. They scored the best in perfection of routine and partner stunts/pyramids, picking up 28 out of a possible 30 points in each category.

They earned 27 out of a possible 30 in overall execution.

Members of both squads said they were happy and confident after leaving the mat.

“We did the routine the best that we can do it,” agreed East Jay coach Kelley Fraze. “Based on the competition that was here I think we placed where we should have.”

West Jay took third place with an overall score of 215, getting individual judes scores of 73, 71 and 71.

Grant said perhaps the biggest difference for the Eagles this year was they had a different attitude the second time around.

“There was a lot more effort (this year),” she said. “And, we took pride in what we did.”

“I think that’s just more power to (Jay County),” said Stout of having West Jay near the top of the charts along with East Jay this year. “I thought it was close. I wasn’t sure who was going to come out on top.”

West Jay coach Charity Leist agreed the top is a good place to be.

“It’s nice to join the Jay County tradition,” she said.[[In-content Ad]]INDIANAPOLIS — So it wasn’t perfect. Few things are. And there were still only two junior varsity squads and three large varsity squads which scored better than the Patriots.

Jay County’s junior varsity cheerleading squad followed last season’s championship with a third place finish, and the varsity group placed fourth at the Indiana State Fair cheerleading competition Saturday.

Both had some mistakes, but coach Mindy Weaver said she has no regrets.

“I’m not sorry about anything we did,” she said. “Some years you kind of second guess yourself. Even though we had a few problems, the things we had problems with were not things I would have ever questioned being in the routine.”

The junior varsity squad was solid, if not spectacular throughout its routine. It had a mistake near the end, but still came away with good marks across the boards.

The judges favorite thing about the JV routine was clearly its fundamentals. The squad scored a perfect 15 out of 15 in the “fundamentals motion technique” category.

The next highest numbers came in overall execution, where it picked up 25 out of 30 possible points.

Weaver said she was pleasantly surprised as the junior varsity thrived in an area where it had experienced difficulty all year.

“We had struggled building this summer,” she said. “We didn’t have much difficulty in the building, but what we had was good.

“What we did, we did well.”

The judges rewarded the Patriots with scores of 72, 72 and 68 for a total of 212. They finished behind champion Highland and runner-up Mount Vernon.

The varsity squad’s error came early in its performance as it had a drop on one of its first mounts.

“It had three parts to it and we had three groups doing it,” said Weaver. “We just had one group not do the middle part.”

Weaver said it was probably better to have the mistake early in the routine rather than the end, and other errors in the routine were fairly minor. In fact, the judges gave Jay County 23 points for partner stunts/ pyramids, which matched their best total in any category, and one judge even credited the Patriots for a good recovery.

Some members of the varsity squad seemed worried as the awards were being announced, but Weaver said she wasn’t.

“I knew what performances the schools were capable of,” she said. “Everybody had a few problems, expect maybe the top two. I was confident we placed, and I was hoping to be in the top five.”

And they were, with a total of 203 points.

Not surprisingly, Hamilton Southeastern won the large varsity title for the fourth consecutive year. It was followed by Highland and Mount Vernon.

Weaver said her goal is always to have her girls come off the mat happy with their effort. She said it’s tough when that doesn’t happen, but it takes nothing away from the months of hard work.

“I’m really proud of my cheerleaders,” Weaver said. “They’ve worked hard all summer. I’m proud of their performances. That’s a lot of stress. You work hard all summer and you go down there for two minutes.

“I’m feeling pretty good about the whole thing. We had some mistakes, but we came away with some good places.”