Indoor track: Greely sweeps Class B boys' and girls' state titles

Gray-New Gloucester’s Abby Dulac and Lawrence’s Brianna Meader jockey for position at the start of the 4×800-meter relay Saturday at the Class B indoor track and field championships at Bates College in Lewiston. (Brewster Burns photo)

LEWISTON — The boys and girls of the Greely High School track teams finished the Class B state championship they same way they started.

By winning.

They started with wins in the 4×800-meter relays, and finished with wins the 4×200 relays to sweep the state titles.

The girls team won with a total of 63 points, defeating second-place Brewer, which scored 54.83 points. The boys earned 68 points, running away from runner-up John Bapst High School, which finished with 54.

Everything in the Class B state meet changed at the 2-mile for both the boys and the girls.

The Greely girls had a 4.17-point lead over Brewer after the 200-meter run late in the meet, but had 1-mile winner Carolyn Todd and the second-seeded Julia Curran in the 2-mile. Todd ran away with the race, Curran finished third and Greely put themselves out of reach to win the meet.

“I saw that we had 43 points and we were in the lead, but I didn’t see much after that,” Todd said. “I ran a little bit more conservatively just to make sure I would get number one.”

On the boys’ side, Greely trailed John Bapst by nine points heading into the 2-mile. John Bapst did not have any runners in the event, while Greely had the two-through-four seeds. The Rangers finished where their seeds placed them and gained 18 points, putting themselves mathematically out of reach, with not enough events remaining for anyone to catch up.

Throughout the meet, Greely dominated. Elizabeth Brown won the high jump with a jump of 5 feet, 2 inches while Maggie McCormick finished runner-up in the pole vault to Oliviah Damboise of Old Town. Matthew Todd won the 1-mile for the boys’ team.

In the girls’ 400, Bugsy Hammerton of St. Dominic Academy faced off against Camille Kohtala of Orono High School. Hammerton, in her first year of indoor track and field, wasn’t sure of how to approach the race.

“I think I over-thought it because I was like, ‘Oh, what if this happens?’ and, ‘Oh, what if this happens?’” Hammerton said. “Nonchalant because I still don’t really know what I’m doing. I haven’t raced enough to be able to say, ‘OK, this is what I’m doing in the race.’”

Hammerton let Kohtala get too far away early and, even with a last-lap kick, could not catch the Orono junior and ended up finishing in third. Kohtala also finished in second-place in the long jump.

In another race that came down to a lean of the chest, the boys’ 200 was decided by hundredths of seconds, with Cape Elizabeth’s Matthew Concannon getting the victory over Johann Gerling of Brewer High School. Coming out of lane two, Concannon was excited to be able to see his competition.

“I saw the gap and I thought it was manageable so I turned on what I had left then ran as hard as I could to the last stretch, and I wasn’t sure when we cross the line who won,” Concannon said. “But, I guess I inched him out.”

Ashley Anderson of Mount Desert Island won her second-consecutive 200-meter state title Saturday with a time of 26.28 seconds. Anderson also earned a second-place finish in the 55-meter dash.

Gray-New Gloucester’s Madison Post finished third in the 55-meter dash with a time of 7.47 seconds. She was barely edged out by Anderson and Junne McIntire of Belfast, who ran a 7.46 in the victory.

In the boys’ 2-mile, Luke Laverdiere of Yarmouth entered the race with a 9:25 seed time, just 10 seconds off of the state record set by Bruce Bickford in 1975. Laverdiere did not have any competition, though, and fell short of the record. He did, however, cruised to a win in 9:35, which was 57 seconds faster than second-place.

Gray-New Gloucester’s Nicole Cobb gets by Brewer’s Cassandra Brown, but can’t catch Wells’ Eccleston Chenille in the 55-meter finals Saturday at the Class B indoor track and field championships at Bates College in Lewiston. (Brewster Burns photo)Gray-New Gloucester’s Andrew Peterson competes in the finals of the 55-meter dash Saturday at the Class B indoor track and field championships at Bates College in Lewiston. (Brewster Burns photo)Poland’s Mia Turkington checkes her splits in the mile run Saturday at the Class B indoor track and field championships at Bates College in Lewiston. (Brewster Burns photo)Poland’s Madison Wante smiles after receiving her medal in the girls’ high jump Saturday at the Class B indoor track and field championships at Bates College in Lewiston. (Brewster Burns photo)