BANGOR – A year ago, Old Town’s varsity cheerleaders didn’t have their own mat to practice on.

But on Saturday afternoon, the Indians had something no other Class B team in the state could claim: the state championship trophy.

“This is what we wanted. This is what we’ve been here for all this time,” said Old Town senior co-captain Staci Davis.

Old Town was the lone Eastern Maine team to claim championship hardware at Saturday’s state high school championship tournament in the Bangor Auditorium.

“As seniors, this is the way we wanted to leave high school, to accomplish this,” said Indians’ senior co-captain Natasha Grenier. “This is the first time our school has ever gotten a state cheering trophy. My freshman year was the first time we ever made it to states, and we just built up from there.”

Bonny Eagle of Standish and Monmouth Academy won their second straight state titles in classes A and D, respectively, while St. Dominic of Lewiston took the Class C crown.

When the Maine Principals’ Association mandated that member schools must have mats for their varsity cheering squads to practice and perform on, Old Town was in a tough spot. With no wrestling team, Old Town had no mats to use; and money for cheering mats wasn’t allotted in the budget.

Enter Mattanawcook Academy coach Jodi Bisson.

“We used wrestling mats for practice and Old Town didn’t have any,” Bisson said. “I teach with a woman whose husband was the Old Town High School principal and we heard about their problem.”

So Bisson invited the Indians’ squad to practice jointly with her team and loaned the mats to Old Town when they weren’t in use.

And thus was forged a cooperative and supportive relationship between two teams that was very apparent at Saturday’s championship competitions when each team stood up and wildly applauded the other whenever they performed.

“The connection between us is great,” said Bisson. “It’s nice to have an ally when you’re out on the floor, knowing there’s someone up in the stands cheering and wanting you to do well.”

The teams’ mutual admiration approach certainly didn’t hurt as Bisson’s Lynx walked away with the Class C runner-up trophy for the second time in three years.

“Yes, it’s great that we both won trophies,” said Old Town coach Kristen Braun. “It makes the whole thing even more special.”

The performance of Braun’s Indians, who edged defending champ Scarborough by a single point (78.5-77.5), broke the grip on cheering championships by Western Maine, which swept all four classes last year.

The West did manage a sweep of sorts as none of the Eastern teams in Class A advanced to the finals.

East champ Fort Fairfield was Class D’s state runner-up.

Braun credited her team’s win to a more relaxed approach by the Indians, who were Eastern Maine runners-up to Houlton two weeks ago after having six points deducted for falls in the finals.

“We stuck with the same routine even though I was questioning it,” Braun said. “I knew they could hit this difficulty, so we stuck with it and just kept working at it, fixing it… and they did it today. I think the disappointment of regionals gave them the boost they needed.”

Not bad for a team which counts 11 freshmen and only four seniors among its 20 members.

“We really got on the freshmen, telling them they haven’t really had that feeling yet of winning. Once you do, it’s the biggest thing in the world,” Grenier said. “That’s the first thing our coach said to me when I was a freshman. I never really knew what that feeling was until today.”

Team members are Grenier, Davis, Candace Johnson, Tara Drinkwater, Stacy Goodspeed, Cheri McDonald, Kailee Bradstreet, Jessica Stoup, Kate Hogan, Amy Dauphinee, Miranda Parsons, Renea Anderson, Rachel Spinney, Brooke Thurlow, Courtney Gibbs, Amanda Shields, Kimberly Hamel, Missy Dorr, Erica Perry, Angela Madden, and assistant coach Gail Cough.

Saturday’s event, which drew approximately 3,000 and 4,000 fans to the morning and afternoon sessions, respectively, was the last for meet director Bill Fletcher, who is retiring as organizer and director for regional and state meets after 12 years on the job.

Maine State Cheerleading Championships AT BANGOR AUDITORIUM Class A

Finals: Oxford Hills 88, Bonny Eagle 84, Lewiston 82.5, Deering 77.5

Prelims: Oxford Hills 84, Lewiston 79.5, Deering 76, Bonny Eagle 72, Gardiner 67.5, Hampden Academy 64, Brewer 63, Bangor 61 Class B

Finals: Old Town 78.5, Scarborough 77.5, Houlton 73, Gorham 71.5, Wells 69.5

Prelims: Old Town 75.5, Scarborough 73, Gorham 72.5, Wells 71.5, Houlton 68, (tie) Rockland and Bucksport 64, Ellsworth 63, Oak Hill 61.5 Class C

Finals: St. Dominic 73, Mattanawcook Academy 62, Madison 61, Dexter 60.5

Prelims: St. Dominic 68.5, Mattanawcook 63, Dexter 59.5, Madison 58.5, Penquis 57, Woodland 55.5, Traip Academy 53.5, Winthrop 50 Class D

Finals: Monmouth Academy 71, Fort Fairfield 61.5, Washburn 58.5, Central Aroostook 53

Prelims: Monmouth 63.5, Washburn 58, Fort Fairfield 57, Central Aroostook 51.5, Bangor Christian 48.5, Buckfield 40