The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
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Hornets post high scores
Saline 'ahead of the game' after posting season-best scores
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: January 31, 2008
Still early in just its second season of competition, the Saline cheer team has shown rapid improvement this year.
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So rapid, in fact, that after the team's performance in the Bedford Invitational last Saturday, head coach Launie Aben said that this year's squad is already ahead of where last year's was at the end of its season.
"Our scores in Round 1 and Round 3 were better than what we had in our final competition last season," she said. "We're ahead of the game. The girls were excited. They definitely felt like they had done a great job and we were excited for them."
The Hornets received a score of 177.75 for their Round 1 routine and a 261.00 for their Round 3 performance, both their high scores for this season after three meets.
Aben admitted the Round 3 score was something of a surprise after the Hornets had struggled with changes to the routine in practice the day before.
"We were really down on ourselves, really frustrated," she said. "But we had a pep talk at the end of Friday's practice and during our pre-competition warm-up Saturday, they were making everything. Then they nailed every single thing at Bedford. That was by far our cleanest routine."
The Round 1 score, Aben said, was a result of the team's practice paying off.
"They were just executing and showing a lot of precision," Aben said. "The enthusiasm our girls put into it really helps, too."
Each of those two scores were good enough for the Hornets to place fifth out of the seven teams at Bedford in those rounds, though Saline struggled with their gymnastics in their Round 2 routine and finished the day seventh overall.
Aben wasn't worried about the team's placement, but did say her team would be going "back to the drawing board" in Round 2 while continuing to develop its "crispiness" in other routines.
"We've accepted that (Round 2) is our weak link and we're just going to have to work on it," she said.
Saline will compete at Ladywood Saturday.
Staff Writer Jerry Hinnen can be reached at 429-7380 or jhinnen@heritage.com.
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