Last week, the Scarborough girls indoor track team won the SMAA meet by exceeding expectations in events like the high jump. It was a once-a-year kind of performance.
Or was it?
Monday, at the state meet, the Red Storm did it again. On paper, Scarborough was predicted to finish second behind Thornton Academy. In reality, the Red Storm beat TA for the second straight week to win its second straight state championship.
The Red Storm finished with 95 points, while Thornton was second with 76. Bangor finished third (36.5), followed by Brunswick (34), Bonny Eagle (28), Deering (28), Messalonskee (25), Portland (15), Lawrence (14), Gorham (14), Sanford (10), Cony (10), Livermore Falls (8), Cheverus (7), Edward Little (6), Mt. Blue (6), Lewiston (6), Biddeford (6), Brewer (3), Mt. Ararat (3), Westbrook (2) and Skowhegan (1.50).
“On paper it was six or seven points for (TA) up on us, beating us on seeds,” said Kelly. “But we had a lot of key events and things happened for us.”
At last week’s Southwestern meet it was things like Lily Parenteau finishing second in the high jump. This week, it was things like sixth-seeded Cara Snyder finishing second in the long jump, and Karen Smith and Jaymie Coulston finishing second and third, respectively, in the pole vault. And again, Parenteau stepped up in the high jump, finishing second.
“I think they believe in themselves,” said Kelly. “I certainly keep it low key, but I think within themselves they know what it’s all about. I don’t need to be rah-rah, get them all fired up. They know what it’s all about, they’ve been in the big meets.”
Snyder’s performance typified the day for the Red Storm. The freshman came into the meet with a qualifying jump of 15-01.25, but she improved on that by a foot and a half (16-07.25).
“It’s an amazing bunch of freshmen. They really pulled through,” said junior Erica Jesseman, who picked up 20 points by winning both the mile and two-mile. “As a team we’re all close and we bonded really well. I love my teammates. They worked really hard, and I’m really proud of them all.”
Scarborough’s other first-place points came from its 4 x 800 relay team, which was made up of juniors Hilary Curtis, Kaitlynn Saldanha, Allison Chamberlain and Jesseman. Becky Sither and Annie Mills finished second and third, respectively, in the 55 hurdles to pick up another 14 points. Other top individual performances came from Curtis (third in the 800) and Chamberlain (fourth in the 400).
“It sounds like a repeat, but the relay we ran at the end that sums up the meet for us. We were seventh in the (4 x 200), and that’s the fastest team ever to not score,” said Thornton coach Mark DeFrancesco. “One-fifty-three never doesn’t finish in the top three or four, which is a testament to all those other teams. But that’s basically what happened in the meet with Scarborough and everybody else.
“We had a ton of wins today. There aren’t many places where I think we could’ve made up ground on Scarborough.”
The Trojans got wins in the shot put (Brynn Smith), the high jump (Jacky Mendes), the 55 (Jenny Pierpont), the high jump (Pierpont) and the 200 (Pierpont).
“I came in here today knowing that I really wanted to win today, and I was going to do whatever it took,” said Mendes. “It feels awesome. I’m so excited.”
Pierpont, a senior, was focused more on the team aspect of things, despite setting a state record in the 200 with a time of 26.3.
“I’m trying to keep our team together and keep everybody excited for the meet,” she said. “I’ve just been keeping everyone positive and making sure people are cheering for each other.”
Fifth-place Bonny Eagle was led by Kristen Adams (third in the 55, fifth in the 200), Katherine Pagano (second in the two-mile), Courtney Wallace (second in the shot put) and Amber Cronin (fourth in the high jump).
Gorham, which finished in ninth, got a bulk of its 14 points from Kathryn Cyr, who finished second in the triple jump.
“I’m very happy actually because I came out of the 400, and I’ve been sick all week so I’ve been fighting,” she said. “I really thought I wasn’t going to do as good as I did in triple jump. I was just so broken down and so tired and everything. But Jolene (Belanger), she’s a really good jumper from Bangor, and she’s seeded second and she actually got a jump a little ahead of me and I knew that I didn’t want to lose second place.”
Westbrook’s two points came from freshman Erin Murphy, who was fifth in the triple jump.
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