BANGOR

The Lewiston Blue Devils earned their third straight Class A state cheering championship Monday, and Hermon did the same for Class B.

In the 23rd and final state cheering competition at the Bangor Auditorium, Lewiston edged Marshwood 167.7- 166.3. Bangor finished third with 153.6. Scoring is based on a 175-point system.

Hermon posted 155 points in Class B to best runner-up Medomak Valley, which had 148.1. Ellsworth was third with 146.8. Caribou finished fourth at 130.2, followed by John Bapst 128.3, Wells 122.5, Presque Isle 119.1, Gardiner 116.4, Poland 110.9, Leavitt 107.1, Morse 106.3 and Old Town 99.8.

Blue Devils coach Lynnette Morency was pleased her team hit everything correctly at the state meet.

“The is the first time all season they had a perfect routine,” said Morency after Marshwood had posted a clean routine minutes earlier. “And they did it at the 29th hour.”

Lewiston and Marshwood each put up as many as six lift groups, and both teams’ synchronization and energy were strong.

Rounding out the Class A team scores were Noble 149.7, Edward Little 142.2, Brewer 141.4, Gorham 139.9, Thornton Academy 133, Scarborough 132.1, Bonny Eagle 130.3, Oxford Hills 129.4 and Hampden Academy 122.

Hermon had one stunt go wrong in the Eastern Maine championship, where the Hawks came in second to Ellsworth. They worked on smoothing out that error and didn’t worry about what the other teams were doing.

Hermon had to wait out the performances by the Medomak Valley Panthers, the Western Maine B champ, and Ellsworth. The Panthers suffered a stumble in one of their tumbles. The Eagles performed clean as well, but it wasn’t enough to catch the Hawks.

Morse was 11th, with cheerleaders Narissa Eltzroth, Devon Green, Emily Parsons, Autumn Thompson, Devean Wilcox, Miranda Doak, Savannah Simmons-Grover, Nichole Laggan, Courtney Mitchell, Savannah Silva, Courtney Wienkowski, Alesha Aucoin, Chloe Frye, Morgan LeVasseur, Kaylee Walker, Trisha Arnold, Amber Heffron, Logan Elwell and Courtney Rogers.

Classes C and D

Dexter High School cheerleader and senior tri-captain Harley Ponte said a state championship wasn’t something she had on her mind entering the season.

“I never felt we would do it. We’re a tiny team. But at least we’d love each other and we’d try our hardest. Hopefully, we would accomplish something to be proud of ourselves,” admitted Ponte.

But that camaraderie and work ethic enabled the Tigers to hoist their first-ever state championship as they compiled 129.3 points to outdistance Sumner in the Class C event at the Bangor Auditorium.

Sumner finished with 122.9 points and Lisbon was third with 120.

Greyhound cheerleaders are Gabby Ouellette, Kaitlyn Doustou, Savannah Porter, Kristen Carter, Justice Fraser- Gagnon, Miranda Carroll, Keri Woodcock, Olivia Bulgin, Loren Grant, Taylor Martin, Courtney Campbell, Dustin Wood, Kristen Wood, Abby Curtis, Hannah Berube, Brittney Brown, Kaylan Pacheco and Cassidy Daly.

In Class C, Houlton was fourth with 116.9 points and rounding out the top five was Orono with 112.9. Bucksport was sixth (109.6), followed by Monmouth (109.5), Central (106.6), Madison (103.9), St. Dom’s (101.1) and Dirigo (89.9).

The Class D title was captured by Deer Isle-Stonington, which edged Central Aroostook by 2.4 points (117.4-115). Bangor Christian was third with 102.6 points. It was the Mariners’ first state crown in 28 years.

Machias was fourth in Class D with 101.7 points, followed by Penobscot Valley of Howland (98.3), Washburn (98.2), Jonesport-Beals (94.5) and Buckfield (94.3).