The cloudy weather didn’t dampen the celebration this weekend for the Scarborough girls track team, as the Storm captured their second straight Class A state championship.
The Red Storm girls team dominated the field, racking up 92 points, 21 more than its closest competitors, Brunswick and Edward Little, which finished tied for second with 71 points.
“We continue to get the performances needed to win,” said Scarborough coach Ron Kelly.
The Red Storm’s relay teams had a particularly dominating performance, winning individual championships in the 4×400 and 4×800 relays. In the 4×400, the team of freshman Jenna Van Dam, senior Hilary Curtis, sophomore Whitney Chamberlain and senior Allison Chamberlain finished in 4:10.41, almost three full seconds in front of second-place Brunswick.
Scarborough and Brunswick finished one-two in the 4×800 relay as well. Red Storm sophomores Meghan Summerson and Whitney Chamberlain and seniors Kaitlynn Saldanha and Hilary Curtis posted a time of 9:49.88, once again almost three seconds in front of runner-up Brunswick.
The Red Storm were bested by Gorham in the 4×100 meter relay with Van Dam, freshman Jenny Snyder, Allison Chamberlain and junior Annie Mills posting a second-place time of 51.22, less than a second behind first-place Gorham.
Erica Jesseman also won an individual state title for the Red Storm. The senior captured the 3,200-meter championship in 11:23.41. The time was slower than Jesseman’s state record time of 11:06.06 set at last year’s meet, but it was still over eight seconds faster than second-place Olivia Hendry of South Portland.
Jesseman also placed second in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 5:14.81. She was followed by teammate Saldanha, who finished third at 5:21.76. Saldanha also finished third in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:19.35.
While she did not win an individual title, freshman Christy Manning had an impressive Class A state championship meet. Manning finished third in the shot put, fourth in the discus and fourth in the javelin to score valuable points for the Storm.
Junior Devin Leighton also had a strong meet. She took second place for the Red Storm in the pole vault, clearing 9-feet 6-inches.
Other notable performances for the Red Storm girls included: a fourth place finish for Mills in the 100-meter hurdles, a fifth place finish for Allison Chamberlain in the 400-meter dash, a seventh place finish for Mills in the 200-meter dash and a seventh place finish for Curtis in the 800-meter run.
“We’re better in some areas (than last year),” said Kelly. “We performed better in the 400 relay and the pole vault.”
While the Red Storm girls celebrated a state title, the Scarborough boys settled for a 14th place finish with 19 points.
The team’s best finish of the meet was in the 1,600-meter race walk where senior Taylor Burns finished third with a time of 7:18.75.
The boys relay teams also did well, posting fourth place finishes in both the 4×400 and 4×800 relays. In the 4×400, the team of senior Eddie Jones, junior Scott Delano, sophomore Sam Chick and senior Brecht Moulin finished with a time of 3:34.63.
The Red Storm’s 4×800 team of sophomore Tom Pogar, Delano, freshman Nick Violette and senior Ben Talbot posted a time of 8:21.89.
Other notable performances included a fifth place finish in the 3,200-meter run by Talbot with a time of 9:56.37 and a sixth place finish in the 800-meter run by Moulin with a time of 2:03.30.
Red Riots runners fare well at state meet
While the state meet wasn’t kind to the South Portland Red Riots, the team finished 14th with 15 points, several members of the team finished among the top in the state.
Junior Olivia Hendry came the closest to winning a state title as she finished second in the 3,200 with a time of 11:31.65.
Senior Lindsay Soule posted a time of 47.53 in the 300-meter hurdles, which was good for fourth place in a race that saw the top three finishers break the existing Class A meet record of 46.18.
The Red Riots’ 4×800-meter relay team also had a good showing, finishing fifth. The team of sophomore Kirsten Bakke, Hendry, Soule and sophomore Abby Cook posted a time of 10:13.02.
The South Portland boys team only had one runner score a point at the state meet. Junior Ian Golder finished seventh in the 400-meter dash with a time of 51.99.
Cape teams both seventh at B meet
The Cape Elizabeth boys and girls track teams each finished in seventh place at last Saturday’s Class B state championship meet in Windham. The girls scored 29.5 points and the boys totaled 33.5 points. Waterville won both competitions.
Cape’s girls were led by solid performances from Ashley Robinson (fourth in the 100, fifth in the 200, and fourth in the long jump), Carolyn Doane (fifth in the 1,600-meter racewalk), Emily Attwood (fifth in the 1,600), Marita Stressenger (third in the 800), and Emma Hockmuth (sixth in the pole vault).
In addition, two relay teams scored points. The 4 x 800 team of Attwood, Shannon Lyons, Hannah Doss, and Stressenger finished sixth and the 4 x 400 foursome of Stressenger, Meredith Riker, Attwood and Robinson took fifth.
Cape’s boys had some fine individual efforts from Stanis Moody-Roberts (second in the 3,200 and third in the 1,600), Ryan Gross (sixth in the 800), Brendan Flynn (fifth in the 3,200), Joel Bickford (third in the long jump), and Brad Doliner (seventh in the pole vault).
The 4 x 800 relay team of Flynn, Tike McColl, Moody-Roberts and Gross placed third and the 4 x 400 relay team of Gross, Brendan Shields, Moody-Roberts, and Bickford placed sixth.
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