Seniors key for Bangor Christian

BANGOR – The last time Bangor Christian’s two seniors were so close to a state title, they were freshman alternates forced to squirm on the sidelines, fidget nervously, and watch as teammates performed.

The Patriots finished in a tie for first, but lost on a tiebreaker to Central Aroostook.

Saturday morning at the Class D state cheerleading championships at the Bangor Auditorium, senior leaders Jeni McFarland and Jessica Dougherty did everything they could to win that elusive title.

Two weeks after finishing the Class D regionals as runner-up to Machias, the Patriots used a tighter, cleaner routine with minor touch-ups to get themselves into the finals, and then delivered the season’s best performance to win the crown.

The Patriots went from 3.8 points behind first-round leader Fort Fairfield to overall winner by seven-tenths of a point over those Machias Bulldogs who edged them at regionals.

In Saturday night’s Class A competition, Bonny Eagle of West Buxton returned to prominence impressively, winning its first state title since 1998 and becoming the only team in any class to break the 160-point barrier.

In Class D, Patriots coach Erin Lowell knew her team delivered a much-improved effort, but didn’t dare to think her team might have won.

“I really didn’t because in cheering it’s so hard to tell, because of the subjective scoring nature and the fact you’re a little more critical of your own team as a coach,” She said. “When they announced the runner-up score, my husband was adding it up and said he thought we won, but we didn’t say anything because we didn’t want to get any hopes up.”

Lowell didn’t have to worry. The Patriots topped their prelim score by three points for 106.7 in the finals and managed to turn the tables on Machias, which finished with 106.

“My freshman year was kind of hard because I wasn’t allowed to participate in the regionals or states. It kind of whet my appetite for wanting to win and I’ve used it as motivation to do well from then on,” said Dougherty. “My teammates all know where I was three years ago. Both Jeni and I were alternates that year and we’ve used that season as motivation ever since.

Dougherty and McFarland led a young squad of juniors Dane Mooers, Kristen Hersey, and Aimee Sargent; sophomores Margie Potter, Abigail Jenkins, Denise Spencer, and Verity Ramirez; and freshmen Bekah Smith, Kaitlin Jeskey, and Aimee Sargent. Alternates include junior Johannah Kutz and freshmen Maria Bustos, Jenny Stumpfel and Tori Reeves

Lowell said the relative youth of her team makes their success surprising, but also shows how talented it is.

“I guess I just remember telling the girls ‘Your first goal was just to get here and then it was to at least get called back, so now that you’re here, why not go out and get the whole ball of wax?’ ” Lowell said.

In Class A, Bonny Eagle had a frenetic, stunt-laden, thematic routine that was both crowd-pleasing and judge-impressing.

“We called it ‘Let’s go to the movies’ and you could really tell what it was.,” said coach Selena Brown, a former Scots cheerleader who also does the team’s choreography. “We mainly used four stunt groups this year, but with another flier, we could have had five if we could use more than 16 cheerleaders on the floor.”

The showbiz-inspired routine started off with a chorus line that would do the Rockettes proud and quickly morphed into high-energy stunts and dance moves that garnered the Scots 156.5 points in the prelims and 161.2 in the final.

“They had a very neat theme plus a great routine. The difficulty of their tumbling is above ours, so we figured we had to catch up,” said Brewer coach Kristie Reed, whose Eastern Maine champions were state runners-up with 156.1 points.

“I really, honestly didn’t expect we were gonna get called back,” said Reed, whose Witches scored 152.1 in the prelims despite a drop on one of four arabesque stunts.