The region’s best runners, jumpers and throwers are headed to Maine this weekend, taking aim once again at the New England Interscholastic Outdoor Track Championships at Thornton Academy in Saco.
Several Maine competitors are seeded highly in a wide array of events, including one defending champion and another seeded second in two sprints.
Ayalew Taye, a junior from Portland High School and the defending champion in the 1,600-meter run, will compete in the race again and is the top seed with a time of 4:10. His brother, freshman Sintayehu Taye, won the event at the state meet in a record time of 4:09.69, but will not race in the event at the New Englands, instead choosing to focus on the 3,200-meter run. Sintayehu is seeded fourth in the field of 36, while Eric Giddings of South Portland and Levi Miller of Belfast are right behind in seventh and eighth, respectively. Miles Bartlett of Lake Region, Nate Green of York and Tyler Clark of Lisbon are also in that race.
One of the more surprising entries in today’s meet is Edward Little sprinter Colby Brooks, who injured his ankle two weeks ago at the KVAC championship meet. Last week, at the Class A state meet, Brooks won both the 100- and 200-meter dashes with a heavy wrap on his ankle, and was visibly limping following each race.
Brooks is seeded sixth in the 100 with his winning time of 11.17 seconds from a week ago, and 10th in the 200 at 22.56 seconds.
One Maine racer, Justin Vigeant of Wells, is seeded ahead of Brooks, in fifth, in the 100 with an 11.08-second time, but Brooks is the top Mainer seeded in the 200. Dan Magoon of Oxford Hills is seeded 17th in the 200-meter dash, while Joe French of Mt. Blue is seeded 18th.
Clark is also seeded in the 1,600 meters at No. 35, while teammate Elijah Trefts is No. 34 in the shot put. Other local qualifiers in the boys’ meet include Jeff Ramos (No. 12, high jump) and Ryan Staples (No. 7, javelin) from Leavitt and Ed Booker (No. 18, high jump) of Mountain Valley. Teams sending relays to the meet include Lewiston (No. 24, 4×400-meters), Edward Little (No. 23, 4×100-meters) and Gray-New Gloucester (No. 36, 4×800-meters).
Reaching for the gold
Freeport sprinter Logan Crane fulfilled part of her season-long goal last weekend at the Class B state meet, setting state records in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes. Now, she has a chance to do one better at today’s meet.
Crane is seeded second in both races. In the 100, she is .03-seconds off the pace set by Quanita Moore of Lincoln, R.I., while in the 200 she is .32-seconds back of Stacey-Ann Smith, a freshman from Bloomfield, Conn. Crane is the only Maine girl seeded as high as second in any event today. Meaghan Morris of Cheverus is No. 3 in the discus, though, while Katie Rollins of Cony is No. 4 in the javelin, and Becky O’Brien of Greely is No. 5 in the shot put.
Locally, Lindsey Visbaras of Edward Little is still looking to best her personal record in the triple jump. She enters today’s meet seeded sixth.
“This is more about individual success,” said Visbaras’ coach, Rebecca Hefty. “She really wants to get to that 38-foot mark, and she’s been after the school record for a while now, but she hasn’t jumped fresh all season. Last year, she set her personal best at this meet, and she’s always jumped well at Thornton, so we’ll see if she can do it (today).”
Visbaras, also this year’s Class A state champion in the long jump, chose not to enter that event at the New England meet because of a near injury last week at the state meet. She will, however, also run on EL’s 4×100-meter relay team that will also try for a school record.
Other local athletes competing include Stephanie Jette (No. 26, 800-meters) and Carissa Allain (No. 23, pole vault) of Fryeburg, Mandy Ivey (No. 30, 3,200-meters) of Oxford Hills and Emily Poliquin (No. 22, triple jump) of Lisbon. Tess Perry of Mt. Blue will compete in three different events: the 100-meter dash (seeded 24th), the long jump (No. 31) and the triple jump (No. 30). Teammate Lisa Hartung is seeded 24th in the 400-meter dash.
Local relay teams seeing action today include the Livermore Falls 4×100-meter team and the Fryeburg 4×800-meter team.
The meet starts at 10 a.m., with the finals of the track events starting at noon.
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