AUGUSTA — The Madison cheerleading team tweaked its routine, adding a bit more difficulty, and came to the Augusta Civic Center with one goal in mind.

“We wanted to make states,” Madison coach Amber Douvielle said. “We came in and wanted to really step it up.”

Additional Photos

GIVE A CHEER: The Mt. Blue Cougars perform their routine during the Eastern Maine Class A cheering competition on Saturday night at the Augusta Civic Center. Staff photo by Joe Phelan

The Bulldogs did just that, finishing second at the Western C championships Saturday morning.

Lisbon won the Western C title with 122.1 points while Madison finished with 117.8. Monmouth was third with 103 while St. Dominic (102.4), Boothbay (92.7) and Traip (88.9) followed.

“We were expecting to do good, but not this good,” Madison captain Crystal DaCosta said. “We’ve struggled before and now we’re regional runner-ups. It’s pretty amazing.”

Lewiston followed up its Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championship with the Eastern A title.

The Blue Devils — the defending Class A state champs — weren’t perfect, but judges rewarded their difficult routine. They finished with 155.5 points. Bangor finished second with 148.2, followed by Brewer (147), Edward Little (133.9), Hampden (137) and Oxford Hills (116.2)

Cony finished seventh with 111.1 points while Lawrence was ninth with 109.6.

“I think we are a little bit anxious (Saturday),” Cony coach Erin Eldridge said. “Top six was definitely our goal. I think if we hit our routine we would’ve had a shot. But they did an excellent job. Cony has come a long way.”

Madison surprised the Western C competition with a strong performance, which came on the heels of a fifth-place finish at the Mountain Valley Conference championships.

“The MVC’s were not good enough,” Douvielle said. “We had to step it up. We added difficulty to the stunts and we worked on cleaning up the routine. We really wanted to get to states, and we made it. It was a good day.”

It was also a long day for the Bulldogs, who were the second to last to perform. The performance, however, proved well worth the wait.

“We had to wait a long time,” Douvielle said. “That was hard. It was a long, long wait.”

DaCosta said the Bulldogs tried to stay calm as they watched their competition.

“We were relaxed,” she said. “We just got focused. We were confident.”

Like Madison, Monmouth also changed up its routine to qualify for the Class C state championships. The Mustangs, the defending Western C champs, overhauled their routine Saturday.

“Go big or go home, that was our motto,” captain Molly Plossay said.

They changed their routine after freshman Kaylee Sr. Pierre fell and injured her nose during practice Friday night.

“She was the main base on one of our stunts, so we had to make some switches,” Monmouth coach Michael Gilbert said. “We also changed our dance and stunts. We met the goal. We wanted to go top three, and we did that.”

Added captain Lillian Kaplan: “We tweaked a few things. We made some changes and pulled together as a team.”

Elsewhere Saturday, Ellsworth won the Eastern B title at the Bangor Auditorium while Nokomis (seventh) and Waterville (ninth) narrowly narrowly missed a state championship invite. The top six in each regional event qualifies for the state championships.

“It wasn’t our day,” Waterville coach Melissa Burila said.

Central Aroostook won the Class D East-West title while Dexter earned the Eastern C crown.

Medomak Valley won the Western B title with 142.9 points while Leavitt was second with 134.6 while Wells (131.7) and Mountain Valley (123.9) followed.

Gardiner finished ninth (108.4) while Winslow was 15th (79.1).

Bill Stewart — 621-5640

bstewart@centralmaine.com

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