Washington Academy, Machias lead the cheers

BANGOR – The Washington Academy cheerleading squad has long been an Eastern Maine Class C power. This year, the Raiders of East Machias will get to share that honor with their neighbors to the west.

“Can we get a motorcade with Machias?” WA coach Laurie Schoppee asked athletic director Blaine Steeves after the Raiders collected the regional title in Saturday’s competition at the Bangor Auditorium.

Steeves wasn’t sure about that, but the area surely will be excited about its two cheerleading squads.

WA emerged with the regional crown in Class C, a few hours after the neighboring Bulldogs were crowned the Eastern Maine Class D winner Saturday morning.

The Raiders scored 145.7 points en route to the regional title, outdistancing runner-up and defending champion Orono. Earlier in the morning, Machias scored 111 points to edge Deer Isle-Stonington for the Bulldogs’ first cheerleading championship since they won the state title in 1997.

Those four schools, along with the rest of the top six teams in Class C and top eight in Class D, will advance to the Feb. 7 state championship at the Augusta Civic Center.

Teams had to deal with a new set of rules this year, as they had just once chance to perform their routine with no callbacks. There will be callbacks for states, however.

In the Class C competition, Houlton was the third-place finisher. The Shiretowners (133.2) were competing in Class C for the first time since moving from Class B. Sumner of East Sullivan was fourth, Mattanawcook of Lincoln finished fifth and Central of Corinth earned the sixth and final spot.

Washington Academy focused more on its stunts this year in its “wild”-themed routine, and the result was a series of complicated moves.

“We go up heel stretches, then back down and back up to arabesque twists, then we go back in the hands up to highs, and then down and then up to awesomes and twist,” said senior Kim Ross, ticking off the different moves in the stunt. “That one took us a really long time because there’s so much to it.”

That, plus stellar tumbling, boosted the Raiders. Schoppee said out of a possible 6.9 tumbling points, judges gave the Raiders got a 6.8.

“That’s amazing for us,” Schoppee said.

The rest of the WA team includes Katie Albee, Heather Burch, Whitney Drew, Ryan Gately, Jared Ham, Meghan Hayward, Jessica Honea, Jason Labonte, Hilary Maker, Sarah Maker, Katie McCormick, Nikolay Musarskiy, Brittan Porter, Carly Small and Jaclyn Small.

Orono, which always seems to come up with a clever theme, chose a race-car motif for this year. The Red Riots tried to keep it simple in terms of stunting, instead focusing on the presentation of the routine. They also incorporated elements of their theme into the entire routine, at one point pretending to rev a motorcycle engine.

“We still have a young squad and we only have 11 members,” Orono coach Suzanne Lewis said. “This year we tried to do some of the more difficult things but we just couldn’t execute them. So we figured neat and clean was better and hopefully for states we can put more difficulty in.”

In Class D, Central Aroostook of Mars Hill was third overall with 107.1 points. Lee was fourth with a 93.6, edging Buckfield’s 93.5. The five-member Jonesport-Beals squad (93.0) came in sixth, Bangor Christian (86.7) was seventh and defending state champ Fort Fairfield (86.4) was eighth.

The Bulldogs, who were fourth last year, had one of the crisper routines in the competition, and that paid off as the they don’t have any fancy tumbling passes, just simple rolls. Tumbling is often key to racking up a lot of points, so Machias knew it had to be steady in other areas.

“I think what helped us was that we have strong technique and strong stunts, and that helped us get all the other points up from the tumbling points,” senior Logan Davis said. “We work very, very hard on that in practice. We take hours just trying to make sure everything is clean.”

Machias’ routine, which has a “Footloose” theme, is such that the hard part is out of the way early. The Bulldogs opened with two strong stunts and performed a pyramid stunt, also early.

“We do try to do the hard stuff first because we get tired later on,” Davis said. “As soon as that last pyramid worked it was like, ‘We did it, we did it.”‘

The rest of the Machias roster is made up of Leslie Albee, Desiree Armstrong, Christine Bratcher, Cali Congelosi, Meredith Davis, Brittany Foss, Ashlee Gardner, Nina Magee, Stephanie McDonald, Jessica Peabody and Whitney Proctor.

Mariners coach Kimberley Larsen wasn’t sure what to expect from her squad this year. Deer Isle-Stonington was second in the regional competition last year, but that was with seven seniors.

That left three seniors Larsen had worked with last year.

“It was like a rebuilding year for us, but these girls just came absolutely alive for us,” said Larsen, who is in her 19th season as the Mariners’ head coach.

Skill at the flier positions – the cheerleaders who are lifted into the air – allowed the Mariners to insert some complicated stunt sequences. Flier Erin Haskell is in her fourth year cheering for Larsen, while Tia Dewey-Wood is a sophomore and recent flier.

“[Haskell has] been with me for a while,” Larsen said. “And we needed to have a sophomore up because no one else had been flying. We put her up in an extension one day and I said, ‘You’re it.'”