AUBURN — The Edward Little girls outdoor track and field team spread its dominance over all phases and the Red Eddies’ boys team took advantage of its depth to claim victory over Mt. Blue and Oxford Hills during a home meet Thursday.
Edward Little senior Ella Boucher won the long jump (16 feet), triple jump (34-06.5) and the 100-meter dash (13.42 seconds) and also took third in the 200-meter dash (28.49), while freshman teammate Makenna Drouin took first in the 200 (27.89) and the 300-meter hurdles (51.86) and added a runner-up finish in the 100-meter hurdles (17.91) to lead the girls team to a 127-point meet. Oxford Hills finished in second with 55, while Mt. Blue earned 10.
On the boys side, Edward Little scored 109 to beat Oxford Hills’ 82 and Mt. Blue’s tallied eight points on the day.
Red Eddies head coach Rebecca Hefty was impressed with how two of the girls team’s top athletes performed.
“Ella brings leadership to this team and she is also a good motivator to kids,” Hefty said. “She’s working with a lot of younger kids and she’s mentoring them with good character and she is a hard worker. She’s a top-notch kid, she improved all of her times from last week and her jumps from last week.”
Since winning four events in her first meet, Drouin, a freshman, has continued to impress and improve.
“She improved hurdle times, 200 times, she is so determined to not be beat,” Hefty said. “She has this grit and this competitiveness to her — and you can’t teach competition to kids, and she has it. It will push her so far.”
The Vikings turned in some top performances of their own. Kaylynn Johnson pulled away from the pack early in the 800-meter and finished in 2 minutes, 33.5 seconds.
“2:30 was my goal, I was going to try to do 1:15 splits,” Johnson said. “The first one was 1:14/1:15. I felt really good, actually. It was the last 200 meters where it really started to hurt and I couldn’t feel my arms, couldn’t feel my legs. It’s almost easier for me to pace off myself because sometimes if I have someone with me that I know is faster I justify being behind them and say, ‘Oh, they’re going to beat me anyway.’ So, today I kind of just had that drive. This is what I want, why not go all out and do it.”
It wasn’t just the girls of Edward Little who had talented sprinters and jumpers on Thursday. Tudum Monday earned wins in the boys 200-meter (25.46), 110-meter hurdles (16.65) and long jump (19-07.5) — in the sophomore’s time participating in the event since middle school — while also running to a fourth-place finish in the 100-meter dash (12.67).
“My first jump today they told me I got 19-something and, honestly, I couldn’t believe it because it had been a long time since I ever did it,” Monday said. “I just listen to what Hefty says and it’s gone great.”
Monday already has a top time in the 300-meter hurdles, so he was put in some new events at Thursday’s meet to see how he would fare, and also where he can help the Red Eddies can earn the most points.
“(Hefty) changed me because last week I did four events and then this week she put me in three new events,” Monday said. “She’s trying to mix me up because last year would’ve been my first year, but because of COVID this is my first year and Hefty sees potential in me and she wants to see what I’m good at and what I can bring to the team.”
John Shea won the shot put (38-11) for the Red Eddies and tacked on a runner-up finish in the discus (86-02) and in the 4×100-meter relay (49.68), during which he ran the second leg. Shea kept pace with Oxford Hills’ Isaac Roy and “left it all on the track” on the handoff, after which he fell to the track.
“Just nerves running through my body until I hear the gun go off, then I see Gavin coming around the corner and I said, ‘Oh, my God, I gotta get ready,’” Shea said. “I thought I was catching up a little bit, but then the handoff wasn’t too clean and I wiped out. No shame, no shame.”
Nickolas Plamondon won the 100 for Oxford Hills in 12.38, while Hakon Teceno won the 400-meter (58.56).
In the throws, Oxford Hills’ Atticus Soehren won the boys javelin with a top toss of 167-04, while teammate Megan Bickford won both the girls discus (107-01) and shot put (31-07) for the Vikings.
Edward Little’s Faith Small won the girls javelin with a throw of 95-09, followed by Mt. Blue’s Abbie Cramer (81-04).
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