Show-stopper Shiretowners take ‘C’ crown Cheers to Houlton, Class A state champion Lewiston

AUGUSTA – Cheerleading coaches always tell their teams that selling the routine is critical for winning a competition.

For the Houlton cheerleading squad, entertaining the crowd and the judges was critical. The Shiretowners were performing to a medley of Broadway show tunes and, in the final round of Saturday’s Class C state cheerleading competition at the Augusta Civic Center, Houlton put together a show-stopper.

The Shiretowners scored 147.8 points to earn the state title in their first season since moving from Class B. They won the Class B title in 2002.

“We’ve stuck together as a group so much,” said Houlton senior Jessica Swimm. “We’ve come so far.”

Washington Academy of East Machias, the Eastern Maine champ two weeks ago, picked up runner-up honors with 143.2 points. St. Dominic of Auburn scored 138.1 points to finish in third place and Orono was fourth with 130.6.

Lewiston, the Eastern Maine Class A runner-up, rolled to its second straight state title in that classification, scoring 162.1 points for the crown. Biddeford was the runner-up with 160.6 points, while Bonny Eagle of West Buxton scored a 159.4 to edge Brewer’s 159.3.

The state competition was made up of the top six Eastern and Western Maine teams from the regionals two weeks ago. Each team performed its routine once, and the top four were called back for the final round.

In the Class C competition, it seemed as if the Shires felt a responsibility to perform their routine because of the Broadway music to which it was set. They had a lot of little touches that made the routine feel like more like a musical act.

“The key is selling it,” coach Julie Dunn-Brown said. “It was not a typical cheerleading routine. It was a performance. We wanted to do something different this year.”

Twisting dismounts out of every stunt helped amp up the routine, too.

The Shiretowners were third at the Eastern Maine competition.

“We didn’t add anything,” Dunn-Brown said of the two-week layoff between regionals and states. “I think we became more focused. We took the judges scores and comments, and fixed them.”

The rest of the Houlton team members are Sarah Putnam, Kristin Lincoln, Jodi Anderson, Amie McPartland, Whitney Thompson, Brittaney McGary, Mallory McPartland, Liz Sewell, Theresa Harvey, Lexi Bennett, Elyse Peters, Brandi Hill, Taylor Rutledge, Katie Fitzpatrick, Anna Schools, Laurie Bissonnette, and manager Molly Dunn.

The Shiretowners had a mishap in the prelim round when one of the girls had a shoe come off. The team had to restart its routine from the place it left off and finished without incident.

The Raiders of East Machias had a stunt fall in the first round, but recovered nicely the second time around.

“Everything else was a lot better the second round,” WA coach Laurie Schoppee. “When you have a fall other things go down, but they did a lot better. I’m very proud of them.”

In the Class A competition, the top four teams were separated by just 6.9 points going into the final round, but the Blue Devils led the entire time.

The Devils opened with a complicated stunting sequence that goes from moving heel stretches to twisting and moving scorpions, with twist cradles and torches in between.

“At first we couldn’t believe it when [coach Deneka Fortier] told us about it,” said Tarrah Bowen, the team’s only senior. “But it excited us and we worked hard to get it.”

The rest of the Lewiston team includes Amanda Sasseville, Amanda Frechette-Dumont, Sommer Locke, Abby Church, Kelly Berube, Toni Letourneau, Danielle Brewer, Katie Sutton, Leslie Lacroix, Samantha Nadeau, Sarah Daigle, Chantel McLellan, Kristi Conroy, Rebecca Roy, Courtney Gladu, Roxanne Healy, Allyson Banks, Desiree Beaule and Kaitlyn Letourneau.

Brewer, the Eastern Maine champ, overcame a five-point deduction in the preliminary round to post its top score of the season in the finals.

“I’m not disappointed because I think we did pretty well besides a few minor mistakes,” said Brewer’s Melissa Jacobs, who along with Riley Godley and Whitney Boudreau are the Witches’ only seniors. “We hit our routine better than we ever have.”