In this touch-of-a-button world, there are no secrets entering today’s track and field state championship meets.
Results from last weekend’s conference championships were posted on-line by Sunday. State seeds were available to coaches and athletes no later than Tuesday. That, after fictional state meets based on out-of-context times and distance were updated almost weekly, all season long.
The information’s there. What people do with it is their business and falls in line with their coaching or competitive philosophy.
Sometimes you need only to walk across the track at one high school to see the contrast between digitized and blissfully disconnected.
“Cheverus and Brunswick are seeded 33 and 28 points ahead of us,” Edward Little High School boys’ coach Ryan LaRoche said, handicapping today’s Class A meet at Cony High School in Augusta.
Class B competes at Windham High School, with Class C convening at Foxcroft Academy. All meets start at 10 a.m., with most finals in the afternoon and awards scheduled between 4 and 5 p.m.
EL is a slim favorite to successfully defend its Class A girls’ championship against Scarborough. Not that anybody is running to the mathematics lab to find an abacus or even flipping open their cell phone calculator.
“I think that information is probably available to us, “ said EL senior Ashten Hackett, “but we don’t talk about it.”
“A lot of people worry about that stuff, but I can’t do it,” EL coach Rebecca Hefty said. “I admit I woke up with one of my kids the other night and went on there at midnight to see if the seeds were up. But some people spend hours and I never really understood why.”
Perhaps that’s a reflection of the Red Eddies’ comfort level. They boast multiple seeds in several events. Jaclyn Masters (pole vault), Abby Dunn (racewalk) and Ashten Hackett (triple jump) all are ranked No. 1.
Hackett led an EL sweep of all seven scoring positions in triple jump at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference meet. Katherine Harmon is seeded third, Chyla Hiott fourth and Danielle Demers seventh at states.
Hiott is a threat to score in both long jump and 300-meter hurdles. Hanna Mogensen is among the favorites in long jump and the 400.
“It should be a close meet between two schools,” Hefty said, alluding to Scarborough.
On the boys’ side, the Eddies hope to spring the upset after finishing second by a single-digit margin to Bangor in 2007 and Bonny Eagle last June.
“I’ve finished second in the state four times in my high school career,” said Steven Giorgetti, a threat in both javelin and high jump who also played on back-to-back EL teams that lost narrowly in the Class A basketball final.
EL’s boys won’t likely have a multiple event winner or one-two sweep to deposit in their coffers. The Eddies should show up on the podium throughout the day, however, with a contender in almost every event.
Ricardo Hairston is the top seed in triple jump and a contender in high jump. In addition to its traditional strength in relays, the Eddies could reap points from Michael Lucas (hurdles), Taka Ranucci (100), Jeremy Theriault (800), Keith Tremblay (racewalk, javelin), Connor Harris (high jump) and Kenny Treadwell (javelin).
“It’s a lot to make up,” LaRoche said of the gap between EL and the expected Cheverus-Brunswick battle. “We did it a few years ago against Lewiston. They went in 24 points ahead of us and we lost by 2 ½. So it can be done. But we’d have to have a perfect day, or at least a very, very good day.”
Other local athletes to watch in the Class A meet are Lewiston’s Derrick Roy (long jump), Leo Gaghan (discus) and Nicole Court-Menendez (racewalk) and Kelton Cullenberg (3,200) and Abby Lochala (racewalk) of Mt. Blue.
There won’t be any local schools in the thick of the Class B team competition, where Waterville will try to fight off York for its fourth straight girls’ title and attempt to dethrone Falmouth and capture its fourth boys’ crown in the last five years.
Allison Fereshetian of Leavitt and Matt York of Poland could walk away with the most hardware of any individual athletes, though. Fereshetian is an overwhelming favorite in both hurdle events and faces a furious challenge from Amanda Peterson of Gray-New Gloucester in the 200. York is seeded first in high jump, second in long jump and third in triple jump.
Peterson also has a shot at winning the 100. Other local No. 1 seeds among the girls include Jessica Mitaly of G-NG (pole vault) and Morgan Copp of Poland (javelin).
Poland’s Kendra Lobley is seeded in the 400, 800 and 3,200. For the Leavitt boys, Jordan Hersom is a hopeful in both the 110 hurdles and 400.
In Class C, the North Yarmouth Academy boys aim for their fifth straight crown and John Bapst shoots for its seventh girls’ title in the last eight years.
“They’re loaded,” said Lisbon coach Dean Hall.
Lisbon is a top challenger in both the boys’ and girls’ team competitions thanks to its strength in the field events. Morgan Reeves, George Clement, Tara Metzger and Briana Moore all are potential multiple event winners. Joe Doughty has scoring potential in a pair of throwing events.
Winthrop’s girls, led by senior Kenzie Hill, have the running events blanketed and should compete for a top-five team finish. Jeff Ryder of Livermore Falls (sprints), Emily Chase of Dirigo (hurdles) and Sadie James of Mt. Abram (distances) will vie for individual titles.
In this touch-of-a-button world, there are no secrets entering today’s track and field state championship meets.
Results from last weekend’s conference championships were posted online by Sunday. State seeds were available to coaches and athletes no later than Tuesday. That, after fictional state meets based on out-of-context times and distance were updated almost weekly, all season long.
The information’s there. What people do with it is their business and falls in line with their coaching or competitive philosophy.
Sometimes you need only to walk across the track at one high school to see the contrast between digitized and blissfully disconnected,
“Cheverus and Brunswick are seeded 33 and 28 points ahead of us,” Edward Little High School boys’ coach Ryan LaRoche said, handicapping today’s Class A meet at Cony High School in Augusta.
Class B competes at Windham High School, with Class C convening at Foxcroft Academy. All meets start at 10 a.m., with most finals in the afternoon and awards scheduled between 4 and 5 p.m.
EL is a slim favorite to successfully defend its Class A girls’ championship against Scarborough. Not that anybody is running to the mathematics lab to find an abacus or even flipping open their cell phone calculator.
“I think that information is probably available to us, “ said EL senior Ashten Hackett, “but we don’t talk about it.”
“A lot of people worry about that stuff, but I can’t do it,” EL coach Rebecca Hefty said. “I admit I woke up with one of my kids the other night and went on there at midnight to see if the seeds were up. But some people spend hours.”
Perhaps that’s a reflection of the Red Eddies’ comfort level. They boast multiple seeds in several events. Jaclyn Masters (pole vault), Abby Dunn (racewalk) and Ashten Hackett (triple jump) all are ranked No. 1.
Hackett led an EL sweep of all seven scoring positions in triple jump at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference meet. Katherine Harmon is seeded third, Chyla Hiott fourth and Danielle Demers seventh at states.
Hiott is a threat to score in both long jump and 300-meter hurdles. Hanna Mogensen is among the favorites in long jump and the 400.
“It should be a close meet between two schools,” Hefty said, alluding to Scarborough.
On the boys’ side, the Eddies hope to spring the upset after finishing second by a single-digit margin to Bangor in 2007 and Bonny Eagle last June.
“I’ve finished second four times in my high school career,” said Steven Giorgetti, a threat in both javelin and high jump.
EL won’t likely have a multiple event winner or one-two sweep in its coffers. The Eddies should show up on the podium throughout the day, however, with a contender in almost every event.
Ricardo Hairston is the top seed in triple jump and a contender in high jump. In addition to its traditional strength in relays, the Eddies could reap points from Michael Lucas (hurdles), Taka Ranucci (100), Jeremy Theriault (800), Keith Tremblay (racewalk, javelin), Connor Harris (high jump) and Kenny Treadwell (javelin).
“It’s a lot to make up,” LaRoche said of the gap between EL and the expected Cheverus-Brunswick battle. “We did it a few years ago against Lewiston. They went in 24 points ahead of us and we lost by 2 ½. So it can be done. But we’d have to have a perfect day, or at least a very, very good day.”
Other local athletes to watch in the Class A meet are Lewiston’s Derrick Roy (long jump), Leo Gagman (discus) and Nicole Court-Menendez (racewalk) and Kelton Cullenberg (3,200) and Abby Lochala (racewalk) of Mt. Blue.
There won’t be any local schools in the thick of the Class B team competition, where Waterville will try to fight off York for its fourth straight girls’ title and attempt to dethrone Falmouth and capture its fourth boys’ crown in the last five years.
Allison Fereshetian of Leavitt and Matt York of Poland could walk away with the most hardware of any individual athletes, though. Fereshetian is an overwhelming favorite in both hurdle events and faces a furious challenge from Amanda Peterson of Gray-New Gloucester in the 200. York is seeded first in high jump, second in long jump and third in triple jump.
Peterson also has a shot at winning the 100. Other local top seeds among the girls include Jessica Mitaly of G-NG (pole vault) and Morgan Copp of Poland (javelin).
Poland’s Kendra Lobley is seeded in the 400, 800 and 3,200. For the Leavitt boys, Jordan Hersom is a hopeful in both the 110 hurdles and 400.
In Class C, the North Yarmouth Academy boys aim for their fifth straight crown and John Bapst shoots for its seventh girls’ title in the last eight years.
“They’re loaded,” said Lisbon coach Dean Hall.
Lisbon is a top challenger in both the boys’ and girls’ team competitions thanks to its strength in the field events. Morgan Reeves, George Clement, Tara Metzger and Briana Moore all are potential multiple event winners. Joe Doughty has scoring potential in a pair of throwing events.
Winthrop’s girls, led by senior Kenzie Hill, have the running events blanketed and should compete for a top-five team finish. Jeff Ryder of Livermore Falls (sprints), Emily Chase of Dirigo (hurdles) and Sadie James of Mt. Abram (distances) will vie for individual titles.
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