Local competitors earn all-American honors at national races.
By Sun Journal Staff

NEW YORK — Troy Clark and Dan Campbell, wrestling and racewalking standouts at Lisbon HS and Caribou HS respectively, along with four other Maine high school racewalkers from Winthrop, Mount Blue, and Dirigo high schools successfully competed at the Nike Indoor Track and Field Championships (Landover, MD) and the National Scholastic Indoor Track and field championships (NewYork City) this past weekend.

Clark, a junior, finished 4th at both meets (7:29.03 and 7:24.55), racewalking for the first time since last July, and Campbell, a senior, finished 6th at the Nike meet (7:43.01), and 5th at NYC meet (7:27.50), racewalking for the first time since last June. Both walkers raced remarkably well because their technique was flawless, and their fall and winter athletic training prepared them well for the racewalk championships. Each athlete captured two high school all-American track and field awards for their performances.

Jasmine Brooks, a senior from Dirigo, walked a personal best (7:25.74) at the Nike meet for 2nd place and became the 10th fastest female high school one-mile racewalker in the Nike meet history. Carly Lochala, a sophomore at Mt. Blue, captured 4th at Nike with a personal best time of 7:38.09, just a whisker out of 3rd place, and although she won her heat at NYC by a wide margin, her time gave her a 10th place finish at NYC. Mark Dennett, a senior at Winthrop, captured 5th place at the Nike meet (7:41.94) and 8th at NYC. Each of these athletes earned one all-American award, for a grand total of 7 all-American awards over the weekend. Jessie Smith, a sophomore at Mt. Blue, walked a personal best by over a minute at Nike (8:39.23) for 9th place.

Eastler helps U.S. team

to Pan-Am Cup

USAF 1st Lieutenant (Capt select) Kevin Eastler of Farmington, Maine, walked a personal best time of 1:25:34 to capture 5th place in the 20 km (12.4 miles) race at the 2003 Pan American Racewalk Cup competition in Chula Vista, CA on Saturday. Eastler’s finish along with the 4th place finish of teammate and training partner US Olympian Tim Seaman (1:25:24) and the 11th place finish of teammate Sean Albert (1:27:42) allowed the US team to best both Ecuador (2nd place) and Mexico (3rd place) and capture the Pan American Racewalk Cup with their 1st place team finish in both the 20k and 50k races. Walkers from Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, and the USA participated in the two week long competition which was hosted jointly by Mexico (Tijuana) and the US (Chula Vista).

Eastler, who finished 2nd in the 2000 Olympic trials, is being coached by 4 time Olympian Carl Schuler from Colorado Springs, and trains whenever possible at the Olympic training Center in Chula Vista, CA. He is working towards a first place finish at the 2004 Olympic trials and representing the USAF and USA at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.