The Lewiston Cheerleading team during one of the final moves of their routine which won them the Class A title on Saturday in Augusta.5
AUGUSTA — The winner had been announced, the award had been received and the team photos had been taken.
That left one thing for the Class A state cheering champions to do.
“All aboard the BD Train,” Lewiston coach Lysa Laverdiere shouted.
“Choo! Choo!” the Blue Devils responded.
“All aboard the BD Train, that’s what we do — the Blue Devil train,” Laverdiere said moments later.
The BD Train arrived at its third straight state championship Saturday at the Augusta Civic Center.
The Blue Devils’ stunt-filled routine earned them a score of 95, far ahead of surprise runner-up Brewer (88.3) and third-place Gorham (88.1).
“I have already won twice, and this is just like the icing on the cake,” Lewiston senior Alison Porter said. “Every time you win, it’s a different feeling, it gets better every time. When we hit the routine on the floor, that was such a great feeling, but then to hear our name called first, it was probably the best feeling in the world.”
Porter and fellow senior Tawni Zamrock both said the key to Lewiston’s routine is getting through the first stunts.
“We all knew it was a breeze after that,” Porter said.
The Blue Devils had to get past a rough start in the postseason — well a rough start for them. They finished second at KVACs. Laverdiere said that Lewiston was proud of its performance there.
But, the Blue Devils are used to winning that competition.
“It actually helped us,” Zamrock said. “We pushed ourselves even more. We were like, ‘This is not what we want. We usually win KVACs, this is weird, this is a weird feeling.’
“So, after that, we all regrouped at practice, we talked about it, we were like, ‘Guys, we can’t let that happen again. Especially not now.’ And after that, we’ve become so much stronger.”
Lewiston bounced back the next week to win its eighth straight regional championship. Then, they spent the past few weeks bonding and cleaning up the team’s execution.
“We’ve been working towards executing all year, and they finally peaked at states,” Laverdiere said. “So, couldn’t ask for anything more.”
The Blue Devils were hyped up from the time they entered the Civic Center, bouncing around in the background during other teams’ performances
“We just really hyped each other up and really got excited — everywhere,” Zamrock said. “We play some music when we walk around, and that really gets us going.
“By playing that music, everyone knows, it’s time to go, it’s time to get ready, get focused.”
The Blue Devils waited for six Class D teams — and then 10 more from Class A before it was their time.
The flips, stunts and kicks were executed well — like, on another level.
“That was the best performance I’ve ever had,” Zamrock said. “Just knowing that we hit, and after, seeing everyone’s faces and hearing the crowd, it was awesome.
“We just put it in the judges hands. We knew we hit zero, we hit perfectly. We couldn’t have done anything different, so we knew that it’s up to them, we can’t do anything to change it now.”
Then came the waiting. Central Aroostook earned the Class D championship — Buckfield placed sixth — and Mt. Blue was awarded the Class A North sportsmanship banner.
Then, the Brewer Witches were announced as the Class A runner-up.
“That was awesome. Good for them,” Zamrock said. “They’ve come so far. They’re a really good team. Everyone was surprised, like, you saw the looks on everyone’s faces.”
If the Witches could come out of nowhere to take second, could someone else do the same and win the state championship?
Zamrock said the Blue Devils were asking that, but she wasn’t worried.
“I was like, ‘Guys, we hit zero, we did what we had to do. If we don’t win, it’s OK, because we put on the best performance that we could,’” Zamrock said.
Not only did the Blue Devils beat the other 12 teams — Oxford Hills (84.8) placed sixth and Mt. Blue (67.7) was 12th — they also beat the 2016 championship team.
“We never settle,” Porter said. “We always try to beat ourselves, and we did that today, we beat our score from states last year, which was a 91, I believe. We got a 95 today, so we just want to beat ourselves and we want to do better.”
“They like to win, and they work hard for it,” Laverdiere said.
The Blue Devils have claimed state titles in six of the past seven years, and nine in the past 15 years.
“Being a senior, this is all that I’ve wanted, all season long,” Zamrock said.
“It’s my last year. I wanted to go out with a bang, and we did,” Porter said.
The BD Train keeps rolling.
Lewiston Blue Devils are the 2017 Class A champions.
Sydney Hill and Megan Gaudette celebrate wildly after the Lewiston Blue Devils Cheerleading team won the 2017 Class A title in Augusta on Saturday.Marissa Larock hugs assistant coach Jennifer Roy after the Lewiston Cheering team won the Class A title in Augusta on Saturday.Meagan Gaudette gets a hug from cheerleading teammate Sydney Hill after performing the routine which won the Lewiston team the Class A title on Saturday in Augusta.The Lewiston Cheerleading team won the the Class A title on Saturday in Augusta.
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