AUGUSTA – Lewiston was saddled with high expectations. St. Dom’s encountered the unexpected.

The Twin Cities teams took distinctly different paths to a sweep of the regional competition cheerleading championships Saturday at Augusta Civic Center.

Both bolstered and burdened by its impressive victory here five days earlier in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference meet, Lewiston ramped up its “super hero” routine and cleared the competition in a single bound before an appreciative crowd of more than 2,000.

“Coming off a win on Monday can either be a good thing or a bad thing,” said Lewiston coach Lynnette Morency. “This morning I was thinking it was easier coming in here after losing on Monday instead of winning. I got a lot of phone calls, a lot of Facebook kids saying, ‘Your team rocks!’ I’m like, ‘Stop it!’ “

Turns out the Blue Devils weren’t jinxed, although the Saints certainly felt that way after a devastating turn of events two-thirds of the way through their Western Class C routine.

Landing awkwardly at the end of a dismount, senior Hannah Wiley suffered what St. Dom’s coach Kayla Koss said was diagnosed as a likely torn ACL in her left knee.

By rule, St. Dom’s was allowed to return at the end of the session, after five other teams performed, to complete its exhibition from the point of Wiley’s injury.

Thirty minutes, a flood of tears and some heavy-duty scrambling later, the Saints somehow sold the conclusion of their routine – fittingly themed “Dangerous” – with authority. The result was an unlikely victory by two-tenths of a point over Monmouth Academy and the Saints’ first title since 2005.

“They did it for the girl that got hurt. We do well under pressure, needless to say,” Koss said. “They were in pieces out back, but when they need to put on a show they’re good at it.”

It was a record-shattering day for local cheering squads. Seventeen competed for a berth in the Feb. 7 state finals in Bangor, and a staggering 13 made the cut.

Oxford Hills and Edward Little joined Lewiston in the Eastern A top six. Mountain Valley, Oak Hill, Poland, Lisbon and Gray-New Gloucester all finished within striking distance of champion Wells in Western B. Dirigo, Jay and Livermore Falls followed St. Dom’s and Monmouth and transferred from the Western C field.

Lewiston, three times a state champion since 2003, made the most of its short week of preparation by improving to 159.4 points out of a possible 175. The Devils easily out-distanced Bangor (147.7) and Hampden (139.1).

“We had a lot of fun and worked really hard. We deserve it,” said Lewiston senior Morgan Harrison. “We basically just worked on cleaning up our routine, working hard and keeping our energy up.”

Barring any unforeseen drops or disconnections, the Devils try to set the bar at an impossibly high level for the competition.

High preliminary credit for degree of difficulty put Lewiston out of just about everyone’s reach besides Bangor before anyone even cued up the music. With two weeks until the state meet, the Devils know they must remain attentive to detail in order to deal with Western A champion Biddeford and runner-up Marshwood.

“I put five one-legged stunts up twice. Nobody else (in the East) does that. That’s maximizing our score sheet,” Morency said. “And it takes people a long time. You can’t catch up in two weeks with that. Now we’ve just got to have fun and clean. We might change one or two things, but if isn’t broke, don’t fix it.”

St. Dom’s will need to make a few more permanent repairs after crossing Saturday’s finish line on adrenaline and emotion.

The Saints shuffled the deck by relocating one team member from a shoulder sit into Wiley’s front-and-center position. They also downsized a jump sequence at the end of the program.

“It takes away from the difficulty a little bit, because we’re doing one less stunt, but we pushed through it,” said St. Dom’s senior co-captain Logan Michaud. “We have a strong team. We accepted the change well and did what we could.”

Koss immediately flashed back to her senior year of 2003, when St. Dom’s lost a cheerleader to injury at the end of its first-round routine in the state meet. Because there is a callback round in that competition, the Saints had a fraction of an hour to collect their thoughts and return to the floor for their encore.

They won by less than a point that day, too.

“So my heart totally went out,” Koss said. “I knew the feeling exactly.”

Monmouth was visibly disappointed after its routine with no glaring mistakes wasn’t enough for the win.

“(Two-tenths is) one more pointed toe, one more smile. I think we were judged very fairly,” said Monmouth coach Leanne Yeaton Burnham. “It’s all a matter of timing, one foot out of place, one beat that’s off, and that can be the difference between first and second.”

Livermore Falls’ squad of nine finished sixth in Western C to end a state-qualifying drought that dated back to at least the early 1990s, according to coach Dianna Pomerleau.