TOPSHAM — A raw, persistent rain forced a delay Saturday at the Class A track and field state championships at Mt. Ararat High.
While most teams fretted, Brunswick High’s boys’ squad saw the rain as a blessing. The 2-hour, 10-minute delay allowed key athletes more rest, said senior Luke Patterson.
“And we know the other teams are going to get fazed by that and we just aren’t,” added Miles Logan. “We take that rain. We’ve been racing in that rain all year.”
With Patterson anchoring a 1,600-meter relay team that included, Logan, Ethan Patterson and Spencer Stadniki, the Dragons clinched the team championship by placing third in the meet’s final event. They entered the relay knowing they needed to finish fourth or better to hold off Falmouth, the top seed in the event. Falmouth won the race, but Brunswick took the team title by a 76-73 margin.
Bonny Eagle finished third with 63 points. Three-time defending champion Scarborough was fourth with 55.
It was Brunswick’s first team title since 2010. The Dragons won only two events – the 3,200 relay to start the day, and Patterson’s victory in the 300 hurdles, an event in which he was seeded third.
“I just went out as hard as I could, like a 200, and I had that extra push at the end,” said Patterson, who scored the winning goal in Brunswick’s Class A soccer championship against Scarborough.
It was Brunswick’s ability to score in 10 events and exceed seed positions that made the difference.
“We’re really well rounded. We score in a lot of events,” Logan said. “And we have a great team dynamic. We never get down when things go wrong.
Logan and Eli Palmer placed second and third in the 800. Justin Corporan, a sophomore, was second in the 100 and fourth in the 200.
Falmouth picked up wins from Judd Armstrong (high jump) and Miles Gay (400 meters).
In the girls’ competition, Bangor senior Anna Connors led the way as the Rams claimed their third straight title with 100 points. Scarborough was second with 80.25, followed by Portland with 69.5.
Connors swept the 100, 200 and 400 for a second straight year. It was her third consecutive victory in the 200. She capped her day with a decisive anchor leg for the Rams’ winning 1,600 relay team.
Despite running in driving rain just before the meet was delayed shortly after 1 p.m., Connors set a personal-best time in the 100 at 11.95 seconds – her first sub-12 second run.
Connors said she used the break to fuel up with food.
“It was definitely strange to run the 100 and then nothing for so long,” Connors said. “I took it as a chance to eat a lot. It was actually nice to fuel up and get ready for the rest of the day.”
When the on-track competition restarted, Portland sophomore Samantha Moore showed she was ready, turning in a powerful final lap to win the 1,600 by nearly 10 seconds in 5:06.37. It was the first of Moore’s four events.
“I felt really good, but I didn’t want to go too fast because I’m quadrupling,” Moore said.
To conserve energy and relax, Moore said she spent the delay playing cards.
The strategy apparently worked, as she came from behind after the first lap to win the 800, then place third in the 3,200.
Noble junior Maddox Jordan backed up his indoor championships in the 800 and mile by winning the 800 and 1,600, both in personal-best times. After pulling away from Charlie Collins of Hampden Academy on the final lap to win the 1,600, Jordan said his “head was throbbing.”
Jordan added, “That usually happens at the good meets, so I guess that’s good.”
Collins set the only record of the meet in the 3,200. He tucked behind top-seed Adam Bendetson of Scarborough right from the start.
“I have a bad habit of running off someone’s shoulder, and then I’m almost in Lane 2,” Collins said. “This time, I stayed behind him and just stared at his back and got in a rhythm, and that’s what the 3,200 is all about.”
With a little over a lap to go, Collins made his move and finished in 9:12.99 – shattering the 1982 handheld record of 9:18.2.
Prior to the rain delay, Maya Judice of Thornton Academy successfully defended her title in the 1,600 race walk. Judice said she has heard the sometimes mocking comments about the relatively obscure event while practicing on her own, but less so this year.
“This year, it seems people are more appreciative of it,” Judice said. “Now they’re more apt to say, look how fast she’s going.”
Judice also won the pole vault, which was competed after the delay.
“It’s definitely an odd combination,” she said, “but they kind of complement each other. The distance training for race walk helps with the endurance to do run after run in the pole vault.”
Skowhegan’s Billy Albertson won the long jump before the rain delay with a best of 20 feet, 10 3/4 inches. By the time he took his first attempt in the triple jump, rain had begun again at about 4:45 p.m., but this time it dissipated quickly. Albertson won the triple jump with a best of 44-1 3/4, just barely edging Mt. Ararat’s Ethan Palmer (44-1). Patterson helped Brunswick’s cause in that event with a third-place finish.
Makenna Drouin of Lewiston won both girls’ hurdle races and finished second to Connors in both the 100 and 200.
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