AUGUSTA — The routine featured enough slips to spoil the pursuit of perfection, but the Lewiston cheerleading team showed up at the Augusta Civic Center for the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A championships Monday morning and did what it has consistently done the last few years: Win.
Only this time, it didn’t come easy after a few stumbles nearly derailed the quest for a seventh straight conference crown.
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The Blue Devils scored 143.9 points to edge runner-up Bangor, which finished with 142.1. Hampden (122.9), Brunswick (121) and Brewer (116) rounded out the top five.
“We won, but it was ugly,” Lewiston senior Tia Cortes said. “We had some stunt issues, things that usually don’t happen.”
Cortes paused, then added, “What happened today won’t ever happen again.”
Medomak won the KVAC B title 132.5 points while Leavitt was second with 117.5. Defending conference champ Gardiner finished third with 115.5 points while Waterville followed with 103. Mount View (101.5) finished fifth.
“We’re pleased,” Gardiner coach Jeanne Moody said. “We had one drop that cost us a five-point deduction. That cost us, but we did well. We had a good routine.”
Mariah Lang, one of five seniors on the Gardiner squad, said the team altered its routine from last season.
“Last year we went with a girly theme,” she said. “This year it was a fighter theme. We went with new music and everything.”
Waterville was among a handful of squads that showed dramatic improvement from a year ago. The Purple Panthers finished seventh in KVAC B last season but moved up three spots to fourth under first-year coach Brooke Boulanger.
“We were very clean,” said Boulanger, whose team improved by 11 points. “They hit all their stunts. This is my first year doing this so I am sure the routine was different from last year. I know we added some difficulty to it, and the girls really nailed it.”
Next up are the cheerleading regional championships scheduled Saturday in Augusta and Bangor. The top six squads in each regional will qualify for the state championships Feb. 7.
The Blue Devils, who would’ve lost the KVAC A crown if Bangor wasn’t slapped with a five-point deduction penalty, will return to the Civic Center this weekend in search of their sixth consecutive Eastern A championship.
But Morency and her squad knows it will need to be better after a few near-drops in the lifts Monday.
“We’re not happy,” she said. “We have to wrap our heads around this. This was tough. This was a very unusual routine for us. We have days to clean it up.
Added Lewiston senior Andrea Bonin: “We don’t want to win like this again. (Monday) didn’t meet my expectations. We can build on this because we want to prove we are better than this. The things we did shouldn’t happen.”
Hampden and Morse earned the annual Jamie Beth Shible awards in KVAC A and B, respectively. The awards are given to the teams that show the most improvement from the previous season.
Bill Stewart — 621-5618
Twitter: @billstewartkj
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