BANGOR — Hermon has made a habit out of winning Class B cheering state championships, and the Hawks did it again Saturday at Cross Insurance Center, winning for the second year in a row and the seventh time in eight years.
Lisbon’s bid for back-to-back Class C titles came up short, however, as the Greyhounds were edged out by 2017 runner-up Central.
Central, of Corinth, lost by about two points last year. This time, the Greyhounds trailed by a small margin, as Central scored 72.2 points while Lisbon scored 71.6.
“They did exactly what I asked them to do,” Lisbon Coach Nicole Adams said. “They should be extremely proud. Their score went up again, which is our goal every competition. Keep raising your score, hit clean, and that’s what they did.”
Central’s state title was its first since 2014.
“They wanted to bring home a title that has eluded us for the last few years,” Central Coach Cristy Strout said. “We’re always right there, but we’ve been missing just a little bit.
“We knew regionals wasn’t our best performance, and we knew coming in that we needed to beat at least one team if we wanted to be in the top two. And these kids dug their heels in and went to work.”
The Red Devils don’t have any seniors on the team. Lisbon, meanwhile, has seven seniors who started their careers by winning the program’s first state title in 2015.
“It’s hard for my seven seniors,” Adams said. “This was it. This was the big hurrah. To be just shy of it, it hurts a little bit.”
Sumner was third, followed by Mattanawcook Academy, Sacopee Valley and Monmouth Academy.
While the Class C scores were close, Hermon easily outdistanced Ellsworth and Medomak Valley in Class B. The Hawks had a score of 83.5, with Ellsworth just edging Medomak Valley for second, 77.5 to 77.3.
“They hit their routine better than they have,” Hermon Coach Kristie Reed said of her team. “We knew we had a little bit more difficulty than some of the teams that we were up against, so we had to hit it, but they were very confident today and I was proud of them.”
Ellsworth also finished behind Hermon in the North regional two weeks ago.
“It’s not a disappointment. I mean, nobody is ever excited to be in second, they’ve worked hard, so it’s an honor to be second in the state. There’s a lot of teams that we compete with,” Ellsworth co-coach Melanie Omlor-Fox said. “Obviously their goal was to be state champs. So we try to tell them, ‘Don’t settle, work harder.'”
Reed said her team was on the practice mat – behind a curtain from the competition mat – and could hear the crowd cheer during Ellsworth’s routine, so her team “knew we just had to do our best as well.”
Old Town finished fourth, followed by Gray-New Gloucester and Leavitt.
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