Bridesmaids no longer, Hermon girls triumph Hawks’ Brady performs despite sprained ankle

BANGOR – If the Hermon cheerleading team had been feeling a bit unlucky this season, the Hawks may have had a right.

They’d finished second in three previous competitions earlier this year and then early last week in practice a key member of the team suffered a badly sprained left ankle.

But Hermon persevered and broke through at exactly the right moment.

The Hawks, who were third going into the final round of Saturday’s Class B state championship meet, posted a score of 147 points to claim the school’s first-ever cheerleading state title.

Oak Hill of Sabattus was the runner-up with 145.5 points, followed by Mountain Valley of Rumford with 144.4 points. Wells came in fourth with a 140.9.

Hermon will join the Raiders and the Falcons at the New England championships, in which Maine teams are participating for the first time, on March 17.

Hawks coach Lisa Pratt was excited to finally have that championship after earning runner-up titles in two conference meets and the Eastern Maine Class B regional meet, which were all held last month.

“Three times the bridesmaid, never the bride,” Pratt said with a laugh. “Today we’re the bride. … This is just a very hungry team. We had a serious injury this week [to senior Heather Brady] and we pulled together, refused to change [the routine], and said, we’ll go with her, whatever she can do. It was a perfect moment for these girls to rise up and take it.”

The Hawks had never made the callbacks in states, let alone win the title.

In all three previous competitions this season Hermon had placed second to two-time defending state champion John Bapst of Bangor.

The Crusaders scored 136.6 points in the first round Saturday, but it wasn’t enough to make callbacks. Bapst suffered a five-point penalty during a tumbling pass in its first-round performance.

For Brady, there was no question she would perform Saturday, although her doctor didn’t want her to and she didn’t even try tumbling until Saturday.

“But I knew I had to,” she said, displaying the still black-and-blue ankle. “It healed pretty quickly. I just had to wing it today.”

Although the Hawks were adamant about not altering their routine despite Brady’s injury, Brady was forced to change her tumbling, landing on her right foot first instead of both feet at the same time in order to ease the impact on her left foot.

Pratt credited Hermon High trainer Stephanie Biberstein with helping to get Brady ready for the competition.

It was close going into the finals with Mountain Valley and Oak Hill first and second, respectively, in a field of four teams separated by just 2.1 points.

“The girls wanted it going out the second time,” Pratt said.

The Hawks posted a score of 130.8 at regionals, which makes Saturday’s 147 a huge scoring jump. Pratt added twist dismounts out of every stunt and increased the difficulty of tumbling passes. But it may have come down to little things that are hard to measure.

“We’ve been practicing pretty hard, focusing more on our jumps, and tightening things up so we could hit more points in different areas,” Brady said.

The rest of Hermon’s team was made up of Kyla and Kayla Whittemore, Rachel Taggart, Meagan Keith, Kayla Pelletier, Kelsey Petrello, Jessica Andrews, Ashleigh Fairbanks, Chelsea Stinson, Jody Demmons, Monica Gallant, Cortney Hawes, Ashley Andrews, and Lauren Peterson.