Blair Griffin is grateful for the year she spent on the Greely track team. She was, after all, part of the Rangers’ indoor and outdoor state championship teams last season, and she said that the experience helped her “immensely.”
But Griffin runs for Cape Elizabeth now. She grew up in Cape and was part of her middle school track team there. After one year away, she is glad to be back.
“It really is a homecoming,” said the sophomore. “They’re an incredible team, and we’ve all very supportive of each other.”
At Monday’s Class B state track meets, Griffin was a bright spot for the Capers, racing to victory in the 200. The win provided the girls with 10 of their 11 points on the day, the other coming in a sixth-place finish in the 4 x 800 relay.
“I’m not very coordinated, so the balls-and-sticks sort of things never really worked for me,” Griffin said. “I just stick with running.
“I’ve been doing the 200 since sixth grade. The 55 is a little short for me. It’s hard for me to get my speed up quickly, and the 400 is a little too long. The 200 is perfect.”
In the 4 x 200 relay, Griffin took the baton from Carly Rapaport and raced out to a nice lead, but in the anchor lap Grace Needleman was forced to pull up when she injured her hamstring.
Such has been Cape’s luck this season – certainly for the boys squad. Ben Weimont pulled his hamstring at the Western Maine Conference meet after Dustin Turin broke his wrist the previous week. Both athletes were top finishers in multiple events.
As a result, the Capers were out there doing their best, enjoying the meet and not worrying about point totals.
“Without Ben and Dustin we knew that there wasn’t much of a chance at being contenders,” said Cape coach Doug Worthley. “We’re having fun because we know we’re not going to be in the hunt.”
Kevin Harrison, as expected, won the state title in the long jump. He topped his nearest competitor by almost a foot.
“I jumped 21-2,” the senior said. “That’s a good solid jump. I was happy with it.”
Harrison was a bit less pleased when he finished second in the triple jump.
Teammate Evan Bagley won his heat in the 200 and finished a better-than-expected fourth overall.
“I’m happy with it, but I could have done better,” said the senior, in his first year on the track team. “It seems like I had a little juice left in the tank, like I could have used it.”
Bagley was also part of a 4 x 800 team – along with Ryan Gross, Doug Ginn and Curtis Dulac – that finished third.
The Cape boys team finished the day with 28 points, good for seventh place in the field of 25 teams. Falmouth took the state title with 66 points.
The girls had 11 points and were 14th among 24 teams. Greely was tops with 79.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
