28 Years

We celebrated our anniversary last night at The Artisan in Elkhart.  We were both impressed.  Ben got Elk and I got Scallops.  Nice place for an intimate dinner.  Enjoyed it.

IWU Competition

Headed to Marian, Indiana today, for Bethel Cheer's third competition.

Round 1

4th - Bethel 69.38 (almost perfect routine and .25 deduction)

3rd - St. Francis 76.72

2nd - Lourdes 79.05

1st - IWU 81.18

Round 2
4th - Bethel 68.43 (stunt fall and stunt bobble with .50 deduction)
3rd - St. Francis 69.95
2nd - Martin M 75.40
1st - IWU 84.77 (almost flawless routine)



One thing I must say is that I wish the SAME judges did not judge every competition we go to.  It definitely would be nice to get fresh and new perspectives.  On what I see, in my opinion, Bethel just needs more difficulty in their stunts and more tumblers.  I just don't know what else the judges are looking for to be quite honest.  They come away with a nice clean routine every time.  It seems like the other teams have difficult stunting but don't hit.  Not quite sure how the scoring comes to light.  A little disappointed today.  But trying to keep Gabi's spirits high since she still has a couple more competitions in February and will be competing in the All American at Regionals.
On a positive note...today is Ben and my 28th wedding anniversary.  Not all the roads we have traveled during this time have been as scenic or easy as others, but they have brought us to where we are today and I can say I am more in love with this man than I was when I first married him. And I would not have wanted to do this trip with any other.  To 28 years!

Marian University Competition

Bethel competed with five other teams at Marian University on Saturday.  They came up short in both sessions (placing last both times) but will explain...
The competition...IWU, Univ. at Cumberlands, St. Francis, Aquinas, Concordia and Point Park.  IWU won the first session and Univ. at Cumberlands pulled out the win in the second session.
Bethel scored a 64.9 in first session.  We chalked it up to nerves and going first.  They only had 0.5 deduction for one bobble in a stunt.  Still not bad.
Second session they came away with a 67.2 and zero deductions.  This routine was by far the best I have seen them do and we were stumped as to why they placed last even when the bottom three teams placing above them looked like train wrecks with stunt falls, etc.  Come to find out we did not have a back spot where we needed one extra on the pyramid.  The judges decided rather than deduct the 5 point deduction they could have, to just score lower.  I know...didn't sound exactly great to us either but we looked at the bright side...they looked GREAT and they improved everywhere the judges said from the first performance. I was proud.  And the fact that Gabi's friends, Abby Barhydt, Asia Salazar and Alivia Jachimiak (from Mishawaka) came to support her AND Ryan came from IU to see her, just made Gabi's day complete.

First Performance Below:


Second Performance:

Marian University

Our third loss came to Marian University (#8) on Tuesday evening.   We were ranked #9 at this game.  The cheerleaders looked good though :)

Concordia Ann Arbor

Last night was Bethel Cheer's first competition...Concordia at Ann Arbor.  We placed 3rd out of 4 (top 2 were actually Nationals Qualifiers last year and much bigger teams).  The best part...we performed a zero deduction routine and scored 69 points (9 points higher than what they got at their first competition last year).  Very proud of this team!!  They looked great!  Ryan was actually still home for break so he came with us, along with Trenton who had the day off and decided to surprise Gabi!