WYANDOTTE — For the second time this winter, Roosevelt High School served as the host for a high school competitive cheer meet with the Wyandotte Invitational making its annual return.
One of its bigger renditions in recent memory, the 23rd running of the Wyandotte Invite featured a total of 22 varsity and junior varsity programs as part of its morning session. Among the two dozen teams on hand were nine from the Downriver area.Locally speaking, joining the host Bears from Roosevelt, were their Downriver League rivals from Allen Park, Gibraltar Carlson, Southgate Anderson, Taylor, and Trenton, along with a trio of Huron League programs in Flat Rock, New Boston Huron, and Riverview.
After around three hours of competition, it was Allen Park turning in another top performance, emerging as the overall winner among the 19 varsity teams.
Sprinkled throughout the meet on Saturday were a handful of the state’s programs this season.
In fact, each of the top four point-getters and five of the top seven overall from the meet are all currently ranked by the Competitive Cheer Coaches Association Michigan. That includes the the two-time defending state champions from Allen Park, who finished the meet on Saturday with a final three-round score of 791.80. The Jags came into the meet ranked No. 1 in D2.
Behind Allen Park on Saturday was their longtime rivals from Gibraltar Carlson (790.04), who sits No. 2 in D2 per the CCCAM rankings. And trailing each of those perennial local and state powers at Roosevelt were No. 5-ranked Carleton Airport (782.90) and No. 6-ranked Walled Lake Western (776.78).
Allen Park and Carlson entered Saturday as the two highest average meet scores in D2 with the former (785.17) ahead by less than a point over the latter (784.65). The Wyandotte Invite was the third date of competition this winter in which both programs were in attendance. The Jags have now gotten the better of the Marauders in each instance.
The score for Allen Park on Saturday comes after posting a sterling 794.44 at a meet hosted by Rochester Adams the weekend prior. Carlson meanwhile has now eclipsed the 790-point plateau in three consecutive competitions.
The host Bears from Roosevelt also earned themselves a first-place finish, pacing the pack of seven D1 programs with a final score of 775.82. That not only bested their league and local rivals from Anderson (770.04), but also D1 No. 9-ranked South Lyon East (770.00).
Ranked No. 15 in D1 coming in, Roosevelt has seemingly found a groove heading into February. Following their efforts at their own meet on Saturday, which was also a season-best performance, the Bears have averaged a three-round score of just a tick over 770 over their last four competitions.
Saturday was also a new season-best showing in a big way for Anderson, whose score is nearly a 50-point uptick from their performance at that Adams-hosted meet on Jan 24.
Another local program who had far and away their best overall effort on the cheer season was Flat Rock (74.36), who bested their Huron League rivals from Monroe Jefferson (691.44) as the only two D3 programs on hand.
Flat Rock, whose score was good for eighth among all varsity programs, shattered their previous top score (707.70) of the season, which came three weekends prior at the annual Allen Park Invitational on Jan 10.
Elsewhere in the group of nine D2 clubs on Saturday, Riverview (739.42) finished fifth overall behind the four aforementioned CCCAM-ranked squads, while Trenton (715.70) and Huron (697.68) finished consecutively in seventh and eighth.
Saturday was a new season-best mark for Riverview, who competed for just the fourth time this winter. A big reason for the Pirates’ surge in points were new high totals in both the first and third rounds, including a strong showing to cap their performance in the final round (314.60).
In what was just their third competition of the season, Trenton again took another big step forward.
After seeing more than a 40-point jump from their first meet to their second earlier in the campaign, the Trojans’ score on Saturday was nearly a 20-point climb from their efforts at the annual Pat Christiansen Memorial Invite hosted by Carlson (694.60).
The Wyandotte Invite was the fifth meet of the season for Huron, who like Riverview and Trenton each discovered a new high mark. The Chiefs’ score on Saturday was nearly 30 points better from their last time out, which was just a few days prior at a competition hosted by Lincoln Park on Jan 28.
Speaking of that Lincoln Park competition, that was also the last time the team from Taylor took the mat as well. Still relatively new to the competitive cheer scene, the Griffins’ score on Saturday (625.20) comes after they set a new program-best three-round score at Lincoln Park earlier in the week (632.50), which was good enough to earn them a first-place finish there.
As far as the trio of JV programs on hand, the team from Allen Park got the better of both Anderson and Roosevelt. In fact, the Jags score of 708.42 was good for 13th among all varsity and junior varsity teams competing on Saturday.
Photo gallery of the 23rd annual Wyandotte Competitive Cheer Invitational
