Bangor High sprinter Anna Connors won three events at the Class A indoor track state championships, setting meet records in the 55 and 200 meters. Carl D. Walsh/Staff Photographer
Anna Connors went into her junior year at Bangor High ready to claim Class A state records set by former Cheverus sprinter Victoria Bossong, who graduated last spring.
After breaking two of Bossong’s records, Connors is just getting started.
At the Class A indoor track championships, Connors wiped out the 55- and 200-meter Class A records set by Bossong in 2019, winning the 55 in 7.16 seconds and the 200 in 25.20. She also won the 400 in 58.20, then went on to the New Balance Indoor National Championships on March 12 and ran a personal-best in the 400 of 55.62, which would have broken the Class A record had she run it at the state meet.
For her continued ascent as one of the state’s best sprinters of all time, Connors is the Varsity Maine girls’ indoor track Athlete of the Year. And she’s not done.
“I can’t wait for outdoors,” she said.
As a sophomore last spring, Connors ran faster than the previous state record in the 100, posting a time of 12.11 seconds, but didn’t get to claim the record because she was edged out by Bossong.
Then in the 200, Connors did set a new record – 24.51 seconds – while defeating Bossong.
“She’s a special kid. She’s a remarkable kid. To coach her is amazing. She’s an incredibly hard worker,” said Bangor Coach Alan Mosca, whose girls’ team won the Class A state title largely because of Connors.
Connors credits her huge drop in times to her hallmark approach: To take it out hard right from the gun. It’s a tactic that can put an athlete at risk running out of gas, or tying up with muscles full of lactic acid.
Racing in the 400-meter Rising Stars division at the New Balance nationals, she took the lead right from the starting gun and went through the first 200 in 25.5 – just shy of her 200 personal-best of 25.2.
“I could hear the announcer saying, “Connors goes around in a 25.5.’ I thought, ‘Oh, wow. That was very fast,’” Connors said.
“It was incredible. I think I PR’d from 57.85 with the 55.62 because of the competition and the atmosphere. I expected to run 57 this indoors, maybe 56, and hopefully to run 55 in outdoors. But I definitely did not expect to run 55 indoors.”
Mosca said despite her drive and confidence, Connors is unassuming, and there’s no telling how much faster she can run.
“The best way to sum her up is that this season at the Eastern Maine (Penobscot Valley Conference) championship meet, she was a triple winner and set three field-house records. That sums up Anna to a T,” Mosca said. “But also, at the end of the meet, while a lot of kids are hanging out, she carried blocks out for the 4-by-(200) relay team so she could be right there cheering for them. She’s just a special kid.”
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