AUGUSTA – Three years ago, Preston Wing was an excited senior member of the Gardiner High School varsity cheering team competing at the Augusta Civic Center.

Saturday morning, he was an ecstatic rookie coach after watching his Lewiston Blue Devils win the school’s third Class A state championship in the last four years.

Lewiston overwhelmed the competition with an original routine titled “Nightmare” by Wing, who choreographed the whole thing with input from team members, featuring a whopping 17 tumblers – nine of the advanced variety – and finished with 165.6 points.

Scarborough finished as runner-up with 161.5 while Brewer, despite having to make some substantial changes to its routine due to the loss of three team members, was third with 157. Biddeford rounded out the four finalists with 152.8 out of a possible maximum score of 175.

Wing, who would only be a junior in college now if he were still competing, admitted he was surprised he was hired for the job, even though he received a recommendation from former coach Deneka Fortier, who resigned after getting married to devote more time to her family and the gym she runs.

Wing, who also cheered for Saint Dominic of Lewiston in 2002, is a National Cheerleaders Association staff member who helps run NCA camps in the Northeast as far down the coast as New Jersey. He works at Maine Event, an all-star gym in Lewiston, has choreographed many high school routines in the past, and demonstrated that expertise with this year’s winner.

He got the idea for the routine, which has an all-encompassing theme of how other teams should be scared of Lewiston, from his Gardiner High School days.

“We did the whole [Michael Jackson] ‘Thriller’ dance routine for the dance recital with all the makeup and everything,” he explained. “Ever since then, I’ve always wanted to do it in cheerleading.”

Lewiston team members weren’t all initially sold on the idea, however.

“We got the music and routine and we kind of liked it, but it had to kind of grow on us and we got to love it,” said Becca Roy, one of seven seniors on the 18-member team. “I think people see we love what we’re doing out there.

“I think having a central theme like this might even intimidate other teams since they maybe wish they had that, too.”

It was an ideal ending for fellow senior Ally Banks.

“We had a rough year last year with some girls being ineligible and I broke my hand and another girl broke her ankle,” said Banks. “We always say bring your heart or go home and today we brought it.”

Brewer seemed to follow the same philosophy, despite losing one team member to mononucleosis and two more to academic ineligibility right after regionals two weeks ago.

“After you’ve been stunting with a group all season, it’s hard to just change it, so we went down from 17 to 14 kids,” said coach Kristie Reed, whose routine featured a lot of energy, stunts, and nine advanced tumblers. “We had a lot to fight our way back through.

Not bad for a team with no seniors.

“We had two juniors, seven sophomores, and five freshmen out there today,” Reed said. “I’ve never had a team without any seniors. It’s a very exciting thing as a coach to think we have everybody back.”

Brewer scored 151.2 in the preliminary round, but all other finalists except Biddeford also improved their scores.