MOUNT DESERT – One of these days, the Brewer High cheerleading team is going to get its arabesque double dismounts right. And when the Witches finally execute a perfected routine in competition, watch out.

Brewer, which finished a disappointing fourth at last week’s Big East Conference cheerleading championships because of a missed arabesque (twist) dismount, made the same mistake in Saturday’s Penobscot Valley Conference championship meet. But the Witches racked up so many points that the five-point deduction didn’t matter. Brewer scored a 78, more than six points better than runner-up Old Town, to take the PVC title at Mount Desert Island High School’s Bernard Parady Gymnasium.

The outcome was a flip-flop of last year’s PVC competition. The Witches’ win broke a three-year streak as runners-up.

“This gives us the confidence that I think we really needed,” said Brewer’s Jamei King.

The Indians scored a 721/2 to finish in second place, while Caribou earned 71 points to edge Bangor High and John Bapst of Bangor. The Crusaders and the Big East champion Rams tied for fourth with 70 points. Ellsworth scored 691/2 points to finish sixth and Bucksport had a 63 for seventh place.

Those seven teams were called back from the preliminary group of 13 squads. Each team performed its routine once, and the top half of the squads were called back to the final round.

Brewer’s team members are King, Whitney Boudreau, Christina Bush, sisters Amber and Holly Dummond, Natasha Flood, Riley Godley, Heather Hart, Sarah Hopkins, Melissa Jacobs, Kiley McCloskey, Sara Patterson, Miranda Rancourt, Erin Smith, Stephanie Smith, Ashley Spencer, Jillian Dougherty, Libbi Lingley, and Monica Tardiff.

Brewer’s only struggle during this competitive season has been those dismounts. Last week flyer Patterson landed on her side, which is a five-point deduction. It happened again this week, to a different flyer, so five points were sliced off the Witches’ score of 83.

“That was mine last week,” Patterson admitted with a smile. “I just barely didn’t get around. When it landed I was a little bit crooked and they took points off for that.”

It’s not critical that the arabesques are fixed for Friday’s Eastern Maine Class A championship meet at the Bangor Auditorium, but the Witches will have to make some adjustment for states.

“Doubles are something that nobody else [at PVCs] really does. Bucksport might have had one,” Brewer coach Kristie Reed said. “But the Western [Maine] teams all have them so we’ve got to get them in order to compete at states. … When [the flyer] landed [the team] knew it was five points. It’s hard to finish out the routine because you know. And you have to finish out the routine perfect. Nothing else could fall.”

Brewer did add more tumbling to its routine this week as Patterson and another tumbler are recovering from broken fingers.

Caribou entered the final round with 68 points and tied for fourth with John Bapst. The Vikings, who won the recent Aroostook County championship, used strong stunting and tumbling from Amber Fisher and crowd-pleaser William Paul to boost their 68 to a 71.

“The biggest thing was that they just completely lacked energy [in the first round],” said Caribou coach Erica Gove-Raymond. “They didn’t care where they placed in the second round, they just wanted to come out and have fun. They did a much better job.”