AUGUSTA — Things didn’t go perfectly for Biddeford in winning the Western Maine Class A cheering regional championship two weeks ago. But on Saturday at the state championships at the Augusta Civic Center, the Tigers were, as a nearly flawless routine gave Biddeford its first state title since 2010.

As the top team in the West region, the Tigers were the last team to perform. That means they had to take the floor after an impressive performance by fellow York county competitor Marshwood and a difficult, but not mistake-free, routine by three-time defending champion Lewiston. Not that the Tigers knew what they had to compete against.

“We actually waited in the back room. We didn’t see them, we didn’t hear them,” said Biddeford senior captain Sarah Poirier. “We wanted our own space, didn’t want any distractions. We didn’t know how their routines went at all.”

The Hawks actually finished with the best score of the day, but a one-point deduction left them with the same score of 158.8 as Biddeford, and the Tigers won the state title by means of a tie-breaker.

The Blue Devils, who have won each Class A state title since Biddeford’s last triumph, weren’t at their best, and even a higher degree of difficulty couldn’t keep them from a fourth place finish ”“ fellow Eastern Maine competitor Bangor took third place.

The Tigers took the floor last, and it ended up being a save the best for last. The stunts that Biddeford didn’t hit in the regionals were flawless on Saturday.

“The first stunt hit, I’m like, ”˜yeah, that was solid, that was good.’ Then they go to the next one, I’m like ”˜yeah, that was good. I’m okay. Good, we’re going to do it,’” said head coach Debbie Lebel. “When they hit that last pyramid, I was like ”˜yeah, this is good.’”

“When we were on the floor, you could feel the adrenaline off the crowd. We kept saying to each other ”˜we got this. We got this. We want a state championship,’” said senior captain Alex Boudreau. “As soon as that dance came (at the end), we just rocked it.

“I definitely think not hitting in regionals gave us that much more drive to perfect it for states and do what we did today.”

The week leading up to the state championships came with a couple bumps in the road, according to Lebel.

“This week we had a lot of sickness. It was like everybody was sick and it was a tough week,” she said. “But they pulled it together.”

Boudreau said that even through those bumps, she thought that the Tigers would be at their best on Saturday, when it counted most.

“I definitely had all the faith in the world in my team that we could hit this. We struggled a little this week, and we pulled through, and finally hit, and it was amazing,” she said.

Both Boudreau and Poirier, who entered high school the year after Biddeford’s last state title, said that finally winning a state championship of their own was a dream come true.

“I’ve definitely been waiting four years for this,” said Poirier. “I could not believe we just won. It feels like a dream, because we’ve worked so hard for this. Regional and state champions, now we’re going to go for New England champions.”

The Tigers will compete in the co-ed division at the New England Championships in March with Dan Copeland on the team. It will be the first time Lebel and the Tigers have competed as a co-ed team at New Englands, but Lebel said simply, “we’ll see what that brings.”

— Staff Writer Wil Kramlich can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or sports@journaltribune.com. Follow him on Twitter @WilTalkSports.