The Houlton High School cheerleaders finished their competitive season with a seventh-place finish in the Class C state cheerleading championships on Feb. 7 in Augusta.
The Houlton cheerleaders scored 110.8 points behind the top three Western Maine teams of No. 1 Lisbon, who won its first-ever state title with 119.3 points and the first Western Maine team to win the Class C state crown since St. Dominic of Auburn in 2009; Dirigo was runner-up with 118.1 points with Madison finishing third with 117.8 points.
In fourth was Orono, 117.5 points; fifth, Bucksport, 115.4; sixth, Monmouth Academy, 113.7; Houlton and eighth, Dexter, 107.2.
Rounding out the 12-team field were 2014 state champion Central of Corinth (106.4), Mountain Valley of Rumford (104.7), Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln (100.5) and Sacopee Valley of South Hiram (88.4).
“We scored almost 10 points better at States than we did at Easterns,” said coaches Michelle Sullivan and Renae Foley. “That is a reflection of the team’s dedication and ability.”
The judges marked the Houlton cheerleaders down on tumbling and jumping — two aspects that are very hard to increase in Class C without a strong rec/gymnastics/cheer program for the younger generation, noted the coaches.
“The score they got this year would have placed much higher in previous year, but every year the competition gets tougher,” agreed Sullivan and Foley. “The girls are looking forward to supporting our basketball teams as they go into the tournaments. We had five seniors on the team this year, so next year’s team will have a lot of younger participants and only three juniors may be returning as seniors. The last week of practice this year was really fun. The girls challenged themselves, but also enjoyed each other.”
