AUGUSTA – From where cheerleading teams sit during competitions, it’s hard to tell how well the rest of the teams are doing their routines.

Like the rest of the teams and coaches, Machias coach Sharidan Faulkingham and her Bulldogs were facing the backs of each team as they competed in the Class D state championship at the Augusta Civic Center. So there were plenty of nerves even though the Bulldogs had a 7.4-point lead going into the final round.

“You can’t see anything,” Faulkingham said. “I was scared to death. Scared to death.”

Machias turned out to have a reason to be nervous as the final points margin was closer, but the Eastern Maine champion Bulldogs still scored a comfortable 115.5 to win the Class D title.

Deer Isle-Stonington, the regional runner-up, finished second again Saturday with 111.7 points. Central Aroostook of Mars Hill finished in third place with 107.7 points and Bangor Christian was fourth with 105.1.

Poland took the Class B championship with 149.6 points, while Gorham was second (145.6), Rockland was third (144.4) and Wells finished fourth (141.2).

In the Class D competition, the Bulldogs knew if they kept their routine clean in the finals, they would have a good shot at their first state cheering title since 1997.

“We had to make sure that we stuck all of our stunts, the technique was good, and we had to make sure that we had really good facials [expressions],” senior Desiree Armstrong said.

Machias starts with a hitch pyramid and brings it down and back up into a waterfall stunt. The ‘Dogs have another complicated stunt where a flyer performs a liberty, the bases move her down and she comes back up into a torch stunt.

“We’ve got strong stunts, and we nailed them, and they were clean,” Faulkingham said. “We did all one-legged [stunts] except for a turning full extension. Those girls did awesome.”

The rest of the Machias cheerleaders include Leslie Albee, Cali Cangelosi, Logan Davis, Meredith Davis, Jessica Peabody, Brittany Foss, Nina Magee, Whitney Proctor, Stephanie McDonald, Ashlee Gardner and Christine Bratcher.

The Mariners had a five-point deduction in the first round (one of the cheerleaders stepped on a pom-pom) but they took it in stride.

DI-Stonington’s basketball teams had a lot of home games in the past two weeks, so the cheerleaders had a lot of chances to work on the routine.

“We showed it to our crowd and just kept polishing it,” coach Kimberely Larsen said. “They got us really pumped. Year after year [the schedule] isn’t always like that.”

In the Class B competition, Poland had a five-point deduction in the finals when a flyer landed incorrectly out of a double twisting dismount. But the Knights had a 10.2-point cushion anyway, so the deduction didn’t hurt that much.

“That rocks your score pretty hard but the great thing was we had a strong, solid routine and we were able to carry it through even with the five points,” coach Tiffany Fortier said.

Poland’s cheerleaders are Megan Gray, Amanda Flint, Jessica Verrill, Vanessa Dumont, Amanda Scripture, Jen Gray, Ashley Christy, Marlo Hewitt, Kim Earle, Alex Girardin, Dayna Pelletier, Erin Cannon, Erica McLeod, Jenna Wing, Melissa Thurlow, Amber Bissonnette, Angie Scripture, Katie Coolidge and Marissa Bennett.

Rockland senior Dianne Grade said once the Tigers knew they had made the top four they focused on fixing a bobble that occurred at the end of their prelim routine.

“We had some bobbles in the first round and that takes out points from stunting and overall appeal,” she said. “We hit that in the second round, so I’m not disappointed with it. We always push it more in the second round.”

Rockland coaches Mary Sidelinger and Rachel Collamore are both resigning after this year to move on, Grade said.