BANGOR – The Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln basketball teams made their Class B debuts this winter after many years in Class C. The MA cheerleaders made the move up in classification, too, and had a strong first season in Class B.

The Lynx made callbacks at the Penobscot Valley Conference and Big East championships and finished fifth at the Eastern Maine Class B meet. They were 11th out of 12 teams at states.

The Lynx had a sense of what was to come after PVCs, the first meet of the season.

“Actually when we first started and we went to [PVCs] we hadn’t seen any Class B teams so we really weren’t sure what to expect,” coach Jodi Bisson said after the Lynx cheered on the No. 8 MA boys, who lost to No. 1 Maranacook of Readfield. “Shockingly, we made it. I thought we’d be home in time to watch the Patriots.”

The Mattanawcook cheerleaders got a lot of attention this season for a stunt in which they lift the two male members of their team, Mike Dube and Rory Parker.

“The fans loved it,” Bisson said. “It was a tremendous boost for [the team] the first time they did it, because when [the crowd] saw the boys go up the whole place erupted.”

Dube weighs about 165 pounds and Parker is about 175.