AUGUSTA — When she left the floor after her team’s routine, Central High School senior Logan Wilson was confident the Red Devils had done well, but wasn’t convinced they had nailed it, either.
“I think we were really excited, but we didn’t want to get too confident. We were just all really happy,” Wilson said.
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If the Red Devils were happy then, they were absolutely thrilled an hour later, when they were crowned the Class C cheering state champions. Central won with 135.2 points out of a possible 175, edging Lisbon (130.9).
In Class B, Hermon scored 147.4 points to repeat at state champs. Ellsworth, the East regional winner, placed second with 146.5 points.
“Losing at regionals, I think Ellsworth outperformed us there, and I think it was a wake up call,” Hermon coach Kristie Reed said. “There’s absolutely pressure (to repeat), but every year it’s somebody different. You don’t really think about the year before.
In the morning session, Lewiston won the Class A state title for the second straight year, with Biddeford runner-up. In Class D, Central Aroostook won the title for the fifth consecutive year. Woodland was runner up.
Two central Maine teams competed in Class C. Monmouth placed eighth with 112.9 points, while Madison was 10th, with 104 points. For Monmouth, which placed third at regionals, it was a 10-point improvement from its top score of the season.
“They achieved every goal they set. They wanted to come here and run a cleaner routine, and we did. We had no fouls, no penalties. We had a couple things that didn’t hit the way we wanted to, but overall we did much better,” Monmouth coach Mike Gilbert said.
Madison was disappointed in its performance, coach Amber Douvielle said.
“It wasn’t there best performance. Things were just not solid today,” Douvielle said. “It happens. That’s the way cheering goes. You get one shot, and that’s it.”
Wilson said a better score in tumbling was a key to the Red Devils’ victory.
“Recently, we’ve been scored down in our tumbling. Today we got it. We’re really proud of that,” Wilson said.
From the start of the season, Central didn’t change its routine. The Red Devils worked on perfecting what they did.
“That’s one thing that I think helped us this year. Previous years, we’ve done a lot of changes and taken a lot of feedback from judges, but this year we went into every competition knowing our routine and knowing we could do it,” Wilson said.
An early mistake worried Reed, but she watched her Hawks rally to run through the rest of their routine cleanly.
“They had a little wobble at the beginning, and that of course scares you. But the rest of the time they were right on,” Reed said. “I just looked at them and told them ‘You did what we asked you to do. It doesn’t matter, it’s out of our hands now.’ And we did it.”
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com
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