The high school cheerleading season is upon us. Conference championships have been decided and local teams will head to the Augusta Civic Center on Saturday to compete in the Western Maine regionals.

Scarborough High School hosted the league event on Monday afternoon where 16 teams competed in the Southwestern Maine Activities Association championship.

The Gorham, Westbrook and Bonny Eagle cheering squads all competed on Monday and all three teams displayed lots of energy and enthusiasm to go along with their gymnastic and dance abilities.

The Rams had the best day out of the three local squads participating in the competition, finishing sixth overall.

Like the other winter sports, cheerleaders have been putting in long hours learning new skills and perfecting fundamentals. They annually set their sights on these next few weeks of intense competition and they have a very limited amount of time to showcase their hard work.

At all cheering competitions, the cheerleading teams have three minutes to impress a panel of judges and to show all in attendance that their hours of practice have produced a routine that includes loud and distinct cheers, creative dancing, rapid-fire tumbling and rock solid stunts. Some squads do any and all of these skills very, very well while other teams stick to what they do well looking to progress as a unit while trying to incorporate more of these necessary skills to their repertoire.

The top eight teams in the first round qualified for the callback portion of the competition where they had one more opportunity to perform their routines. Gorham finished seventh after that first round of competition and they were called back to perform their routine one more time in round two. (The second round score decides the winner, as the first round score has no effect on the final results.)

When all was said and done, it was the Hawks from Marshwood (151) who won this year’s title followed by Scarborough (141.5) and Biddeford (136.3). These same three teams have been going head-to-head-to-head for several years now. Last year, it was Biddeford winning the league championship with Scarborough second and Marshwood third. And then Biddeford went on to win the West A regional followed by Marshwood and Scarborough.

Gorham moved up one place after round two and the Rams scored 114.0 points to finish sixth overall.

Gorham, Westbrook and Bonny Eagle will get another opportunity to wow the judges at Saturday’s regional competition. The competition in Class A begins at 11:40 a.m. The top six teams at this weekend’s Western Maine Class A cheering event move on the state championship meet on Saturday, Feb. 9, at the Augusta Civic Center.

The Gorham High cheering squad includes seniors Corrie Brown, Courtney Davis, Allysha Jones, and Whitney Tulloch; juniors Sarah Graff, Kirsten Holmgren, Jessica Taylor, Tiah Vaughan, and Chandra Wilson; sophomores Carissa Dvilinsky, Kelsey Herrick, Shanice Mitchell, Jordan Shiers, and Brittney Sinnett; and freshmen Molly Aube and Liz Rockett.

Gorham is coached by Serena Maietta

The Westbrook cheerleading team includes senior Ali Peters; juniors Danene Gill, Victoria Robinson, Amber DiRenzo, Jalissa Bryant, Tanesha Riggs, Stephanie Pettis, Lauren Batherson, and Ashley Clifford; sophomores Karleigh Gaudreau, Emily Bernardo, Emily Blood, Sara Loveitt, Brooke Sinko, Kelsie Berry, Megan Smith, and Christina Cuddy; and freshmen Brandi Champagne, Akelia Vassell, McKenzie Johnson, Audrey Cobb, Emily Grossman, and Kelsey Couture.

Westbrook is coached by Jamie Gaudreau.

The Bonny Eagle cheering team includes seniors Angela Cartwright, Dana Colello, Jessica DelVecchio, Madeline Figenser, and Ellen Wormwood; juniors Nicole Arnold, Bobbie Curtis, Ashley DeStefano, Danielle Roma, Kerilynn Sleeper, Miranda Surette, and Stephanie Tripp; sophomores Cheryl Hornung, Danielle LaBrie, Victoria Loring and Kellany Moore; and freshmen Caroline Conners and Aimee Morin.

Bonny Eagle is coached by Selena Brown.