The Maine high school track and field state championship meets Saturday were full of fast times, distances and heights. 

For Leavitt senior Robert Oliver, the indoor track season was a long workout to prepare for his final outdoor season, which was capped off with the Class B state championship meet at Mount Desert Island High School.

“I just want to throw the thing,” Leavitt coach Jamie Juntura said Oliver told him once during the indoor track season. Oliver was solely focused on the javelin.

“Most kids like track and do multiple events, and he respects track but he loves javelin,” Juntura added. 

Oliver won the KVAC small school championship meet but re-injured his back, an injury that has been coming and going for his high school career.

On Saturday at MDI, Oliver threw about 160 feet and took the lead before Lincoln Academy’s Nathan True threw 160-07. Juntura massaged out Oliver’s back one last time and gave him some words of advice.

“I pulled him aside and I said, ‘OK, dude. You can be up or you can decide how to write the end of your story,'” Juntura said. “We have worked so hard, come so far, you get to decide how this story ends.’ He looked at me and said, ‘I know it’s really going to hurt, but it’s worth it.’ He got into a zone I hadn’t seen before and one of the coaching staff told him to just give it to it, and he threw 161. Our side lost it, he lost it, and it was an amazing moment in sports.”

Oliver’s top and final throw was 161-06, enough to win the Class B boys javelin title.

“It’s kind of cool to see an athlete go to that next plane and I saw it in his face,” Juntura added.

Leavitt’s boys team finished runner-up (57 points) to York (97) in the Class B team standings. According to Juntura, it is Leavitt’s first-ever runner-up team finish at the Class B state meet.

Leavitt’s Logan Ouellette also finished runner-up in the 1,600 meters (4:33.74). Leavitt teammate Stephen Pierre, a freshman, showcased his talents in his first state meet with a runner-up in the 110-meter hurdles (15.94), third in the 300 hurdles (43.12) and a seventh-place finish in the triple jump (39-07.5). 

Jonathan Schomaker capped off his high school career with a big, final Class B state meet. Schomaker recorded wins and personal records in the discus (34-07) and the shot put (15-03.5), while also winning the wheelchair 800 (3:39.49) and the 1,600 (7:22). 

Poland junior Nolan Garey won the Class B state title in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.67. Garey also finished runner-up in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 43.02. 

Makenna Drouin of Edward Little had a couple of the fastest times of the day in the Class A state meet. 

The sophomore first won the 100-meter hurdles at the Class A state meet in Bangor with a time of 15.56 — 0.58 seconds faster than runner-up Alyvia Caruso of Gorham. The win avenged Drouin’s runner-up finish to Caruso a year ago in the state meet. 

Then, Drouin turned right around and finished third in the 100-meter dash, breaking a 26-year-old school record in a time of 12.31. 

Later in the day, she won the 300-meter hurdles in 44.95, a whole 3.41 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Mikaela Langston of Mt. Ararat and enough to break her own school record and win her second title in the event in a row. 

Drouin finished the day with a third-place finish in the 200-meter dash (25.78), capping off a 32-point day to help pace the fourth-place Red Eddies (56 points). 

On the boys side of Class A, Teigan Pelletier put the basketball away and earned a track and field gold medal of his own this spring in the high jump, reaching a top cleared height of 6 feet for Oxford Hills. 

The basketball and football star also showed off his arm in the javelin, finishing in third place (158-00) behind Vikings teammate Nick Plamondon (159-06) and winner Ben Cobb of Thornton Academy (166-11). 

In Class C, Lisbon’s Kiana Goldberg defended her 100-meter hurdles state title with a win on Saturday, in a time of 15.81. The time was seven-tenths of a second faster than her 2021 winning time. The junior also finished runner-up in the 300 hurdles (48.12). 

Lisbon as a team had an impressive day, with the girls team winning the Class C title at Lewiston High School with a total of 119 points. 

Sarah Moore, a sophomore at Lisbon, earned wins in both the 100 dash (12.81) and the long jump (17-02). Moore was second in the high jump (5-02) and in the triple jump (34-02) for a total of 36 points. 

Moore improved greatly in all her events from her 2021 state meet performance. In the high jump, she jumped two inches higher, in the long jump she exploded 15.25 inches farther, was 0.48 seconds faster in the 100 and was 14 inches better in the triple jump. 

Kayla Cooper was a part of the Greyhounds’ winning 4×100-meter relay team and also won the 400-meter run (1:01.56). Amelia Mooney earned Lisbon a victory in the race walk with a time of 8:44.62. 

Carter Butterfield of Mt. Abram won the boys race walk at the Class C state meet in 8:12.54, a stark improvement from last year’s fourth-place finish in a time of 9:14.22.

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