Brewer Witches win Class A title Bangor 7th, to dispute judges’ tally

AUGUSTA – Last week’s Big East Class A cheerleading championship was a good news-bad news outing for the Brewer Witches. They won the title, but scored 145.3 points – a good score, but not good enough by Brewer’s high standards.

It was all good news for the Witches Saturday as they won their third regional crown in the last six years and did so by improving their score nearly nine points for a 154.2 total.

The week before, it took two takes for the Witches to get 145.3. Saturday afternoon at the Augusta Civic Center, they had just one chance to nail it, and they did just that.

The top six teams advance to the Feb. 10 state finals at the Bangor Auditorium and Brewer will be joined by East runner-up Lewiston (147.5), Edward Little of Auburn (135.2), Lawrence of Fairfield (132.5), Old Town (122.9), and Brunswick (120.9).

It’s the first trip to states in four years for Old Town, but this is becoming almost a rite of winter for the Witches.

“It’s great because we’ve still won, but we were making mistakes so we got back in the gym and set higher goals for scores and they worked hard toward them,” said eighth-year Brewer coach Kristie Reed.

The big question is how the Witches improved so much in just a week, a week in which Reed only had a full squad to practice with the last three days due to a flu outbreak.

“The big thing we worked on this week was our timing,” said senior Courtney Wright, who transferred from Ellsworth last fall. “We had issues with it, but we really nailed it because our fliers stepped up. Their counts that they’re supposed to hit their stunts on had been off in the last two competitions.”

Execution and timing are crucial in cheering, but there’s also an underrated factor that can be just as important.

“It’s not all about skill. It’s about heart and going out there and selling it,” said Brewer senior Kristin Wood. “By getting them to look like we’re on the same counts, if something’s going on underneath, you can cover that up with fliers hitting it and making it look like it’s supposed to be there.”

The Witches seemed unfazed by the switch to a different format, from a two-round Big East system to a one-and-done system employed at regionals and states.

“I think you give it so much more here because you’re not saving anything for the second round,” said Brewer senior Ali Caron. “We thrive off the pressure and I think when it comes down to the wire, we shine.”

The rest of Brewer’s team includes juniors Dominique DeFilipp, Kelly Cyr, Tara Geaghan, Alicia Hallahan, Kasey Lingley, Ashley Martin, Ashley Smith, and Alycia Stevens; sophomores Jessica Currier, MacKenzie DeGraff, Taylor DiFrederico, Jenna Duran, Kayla Triplett, Alexa Washburn, and Jewels Watson; and freshman Martina Bosse.

The Bangor girls – who already had to deal with the absence of team member Abbi Leonard after she suffered a concussion in an auto accident just hours before Saturday’s regional – finished seventh at 117.7 due to a judges’ error.

“The simple answer is they counted wrong,” said Rams coach Stephanie Crane. “The two tumbling judges didn’t catch all our tumblers, so that dropped us down to a 3 in tumbling. We had eight, but they counted only six.

“Tumbling’s done in a range so with six, we were in a lower range, points-wise, and instantly lost eight. The last competitions, we got 7.9’s, which is the highest end of our range for the number we have.”

Crane, who was told she can e-mail the head official with her complaint, said she will do just that and then some.

“This could happen to anyone and it’s not right,” she said.

The absence of Leonard, who is not a tumbler, had nothing to do with the scoring discrepancy, but it did force Bangor to make some changes on the fly.

“We just changed our routine 20 minutes before we came down here,” Crane said. “So I’m very proud of the job they did.”

Crane said Leonard, who had a flat tire replaced by a smaller “doughnut” spare tire, lost control of her car, hit a tree, and struck her head on the windshield while traveling to a practice from Glenburn to Bangor.