Gray-New Gloucester is starting to heat up, despite what some would call horrible spring track conditions.

“We have at least a dozen qualifiers for the state meet on the boys’ side, and eight or nine with the girls,” said coach Lowell Fancher. “We’ve been pleasantly surprised with some of the results because they’ve come in some strange conditions.”

Some of those that have particularly impressed Fancher have been his pole vaulters, who have eclipsed the 12-foot mark already this season.

Also, Laurie Young, a former state champ in the 400-meter run, seems to be rounding back into form after an off year last year.

“With a bigger meet this year, it’s going to be tougher to score a ton,” said Fancher, “but it’s a good thing in that more athletes will get a shot at it. There are a lot of athletes that have qualified all over the state.”

Hurry up and qualify

At a recent KVAC meet, Leavitt proved that it will be a school to watch in the upcoming conference meet. Upcoming is the most appropriate word choice because, although it feels as though the season just started, the KVAC meet is just under two weeks away.

“It’s coming up fast,” said coach Tina Meserve. “The way this seaosn has worked out, it feels like we had very little time to get everyone ready at the same time.”

The Hornets have been missing at least one key member of iots team at each meet this season, and have still managed to remain undefeated. They still compete in Class B in track and field, and do not have an Eastern regional championship to strive for. With the state Class B meet all but in the grasp of a loaded Greely team, the race for second place will be interesting thanks to a very deep Leavitt team.

Over the hills

A few Oxford Hills athletes excelled at a recent home meet, and were primarily responsible for lifting the Vikings to a second place finish in both boys’ and girls’ meets.

Dan Magoon, one of the better sprinters in the KVAC, swept the 100- and 200-meter dashes, while Jared Maher won both the long jump and triple jump, and took second place in the high jump.

On the girls’ side, T.C. Cole took first in the shot put, second in the javelin and second behind teammate Mary Darcy in the discus.

Annie Foster was the leading point-getter for the girls’ team, scoring in four different events.

Foster took third in the javelin, second in the 300-meter hurdles, fourth in the 100-meter dash, and third as part of the 4×100-meter relay.

Clean sweep

In a four-team meet, it’s highly unlikely that one school can sweep an event. Unless of course it is Leavitt and the event is a distance event.

Paced by Nicole Rodrigue’s state meet qualifying time of 12:30, the hornets swept the 3,200-meter race last week, placing all five of its runners in scoring positions.