Medomak Valley cheerleaders have had a banner year, winning their first KVAC and state Regional titles. Their golden streak came to an end on Saturday at the State Class B cheering championships, held at the Bangor Auditorium.
The Panthers performed a solid routine and placed third to State champions Hermon. Hermon won with 147 points, Ellsworth were runner-ups with 142.3 and Medomak was third with 138.6. Leavitt came in fourth with 134.7, Presque Isle 132.3 and Wells 132.
“They did a fantastic job,” coach Rachel Coor said. “They fixed everything. I couldn’t be happier with the way they performed.”
With their performance, Medomak Valley cheerleaders qualified for the 2011 New England championships to be held March 12 in Providence, R.I. Coor is unsure if Medomak Valley will make the trip to the New England’s because of cost and spring sports conflicts.
Although Medomak fell short of winning State Gold, they are confident they will be back next season. Coaches Rachel Coor and Heather Simmons return all but one cheerleader, senior Danielle Moshier.
“They performed really well. They had one missed skills, but I don’t think it made any difference. We got out tumbled. The two teams that beat us had good tumbling skills. We beat them in every other category, but tumbling,” coach Heather Simmons said.
“Herman are just good all the way around. They are a complete package. They scored 10 points higher in that one category (tumbling). We still have room to grow in that category. We’re not quite there yet,” Coor said.
“We have been trying to put a lot of focus on tumbling this past year. It’s one of those skills that don’t come overnight, you have to work on them in the summer,” Simmons said. “Our goal is to get half the team tumbling next year. They judge you on the percentage of kids that are tumbling. This year it was a quarter of the team. With the upcoming talent and the kids that were close (on having competition level tumbling skills) we hope in another year to have 50 percent tumbling and have running tumbling passes.
“There is always next year. I’ve got a big group of juniors, and our sophomores are experienced. Our eighth grade cheerleaders coming in have a couple of years at the youth level,” Coor said.
“We’ve been getting better each year. We were tenth last year and moved up to third this year. Hermon was third last year and State champs this year. We are moving up. We were 10 points better than last year. We’re really excited for what is coming up from the middle school. They are pretty talented. We’ll be State contenders for awhile,” Simmons said.
“We are very proud of them. They fixed everything we asked them to. They were proud of themselves when they came off the mat,” she said.