LISBON — Lisbon’s Owen Booker and Emmett Mooney relied on years of hard work and consistency in Thursday’s Mountain Valley Conference track and field championship meet to win individual titles, set personal records and help the Greyhounds win their fourth consecutive boys conference title.

“I think my teammates behind me, I had somebody following me all day pushing me,” Booker said. “Throughout the season, my coaches (helped me) just work through it and I think it really pushed me to get first place.”

Both Mooney and Booker, both seniors, were each part of four first-place finishes for Lisbon/Oak Hill, which finished with 164 points. Winthrop placed second with 128 points and Mt. Abram was a distant third with 58.

Maranacook won the girls team title with 105 points, followed by Boothbay/Wiscasset (89) and Winthrop (81).

FOUR-TIMERS

Booker said triple jump is the event “he loves the most,” and that he is “striving to keep getting better each day.” He placed first in the triple jump with a distance of 42 feet, 11 inches.

He also took first in the long jump with a 21-1.50. He said he broke the school record earlier in the year and has been aiming to improve his distance at each meet.

Booker’s third first-place finish was in the javelin throw, where he threw 157-8. He also ran the third leg of Lisbon’s winning 4×400-meter relay, teaming with Adam Hayes, Isaac Scribellito and Nick Powell to finish in 3 minutes, 43.57 seconds.

“I moved spots from fourth to third, and it clearly worked, because I had to chase somebody down,” Booker said. “I felt really well through the whole event, and I caught him so it was great for my team to win.”

He said the relay win was his favorite because it was a team win more than a personal win.

Mooney was named the boys athlete of the meet after winning four individual championships.

He won the 110-meter hurdles (16.34 seconds) and set a personal record in the 100 dash, finishing in 11.15 seconds, which was more than four-tenths of a second faster than Buckfield’s Justin Lucas (11.56), who also set a personal record in the event.

“I’ve just been getting better every week,” Mooney said. “So that’s good to see, especially in my senior year. I know a lot of people bottom-out at their senior year, and it’s just nice to be able to get out there and PR every meet when I’ve got people that I’m chasing for states.”

Mooney’s third title came in the boys 300 hurdles, and his time of 40.56 seconds ranks in the top 10 in the state. His teammate, Adam Hayes, came in second with a time of 44.56.

“I like the hurdles, because, you know, they’re just fun,” Mooney said. “My dad did the hurdles in high school (in Andover, Massachusetts), and, frankly, he was better than me, but the hurdles are just such a unique event that requires so many different skills to do it.”

Mooney’s final first-place showing was in the 200-meter dash, which he finished one-tenth of a second faster than Winthrop’s Teddy Wagner, with a winning time of 23.08 to Wagner’s 23.18.

“I’ve showed up to every single practice all four years,” Mooney said. “I mean, I probably missed one or two, so it’s just, if you show up every day, you’re going to keep getting better, as long as you keep putting the work in. A lot of people get complacent when they get up to the top — I can’t afford to do that when I’m chasing the dream.”

At last year’s state meet, Mooney placed second in the 200 and 300 hurdles and third in the 100. Booker, meanwhile, won 2023 state championships in the triple jump and javelin and took second in the long jump.

The Class C state meet is next Saturday, June 1 at St. Joseph’s College in Standish.

STONE-COLD SPEED AUSTIN

Buckfield senior Mya Austin was named girls athlete of the meet. She went into Thursday’s meet with a dream: to break 13 seconds in the girls 100-meter dash. She did it, setting a personal record of 12.92 and placing first.

“I had been stuck on low 13s and haven’t had (much) competition this season, so it’s been hard, but I just really wanted to break 13,” Austin said. “I mean, before the race, the nerves are like insane, I’m shaking in the blocks. But as soon as I finished, I’m just like so happy and I was jumping around and stuff. It feels great.”

Austin also won the 200-meter dash, setting yet another personal record of 26.96, over a second faster than Maranacook’s Hope Webb, who came in second.

Her third event, long jump Austin set a personal record of 15-6. She placed second to Winthrop’s Isabel Folsom, who set a personal record of 15-10.

Austin also ran the final leg of the Bucks’ first-place 4×100 relay. She, Madison Wallace, Kai Trenoweth and Brittany Carrier finished in 54.88 seconds.

Mountain Valley’s Brooke Chase also had a successful meet, despite feeling anxious before it began.

“I was nervous, but I was really excited coming into the meet,” Chase said after her best effort of 33 feet, 7.5 inches in the triple jump, which earned her first place. “I started triple jump indoor, and I think that really kicked me off because I did really well in indoor and I think that gave me a good head start for this season.”

Chase narrowly passed Folsom, who landed a personal record of 33-5 right before Chase’s final jump.

“I really just tried to stay focused on what I was doing, because the more focused I feel, I feel like I jump better,” Chase said.

Chase also placed first in the 100 hurdles (17.45 seconds). Though she came in sixth in the 300 hurdles, she set a personal record of 55.60. Maranacook’s Olympia Farrell won the event, clocking in at 51.21.

Chase was third in the long jump (14-10), behind Folsom and Austin.

Carter Butterfield, a senior at Mt. Abram, came in first in the boys 1,600-meter race walk, though he wasn’t thrilled with his time of 7:23.65. Thursday’s intended 3:30 p.m. start time was delayed nearly 45 minutes, which Butterfield said can be difficult once an athlete has started warmups and has to stay warm for an elongated period of time.

Despite the timing snafu, Butterfield’s top spot was strides ahead of runner-up Ross Gaffney (8:56.81) of Boothbay.

“It’s another PR, and I’ve PRed in every race that I’ve raced (this season),” Butterfield said. “I’ve been at it for four years now, and I’ve been training. This is my main sport, so it’s a lot of year-round training. Even in the offseason, my offseason is cross country running and skiing, so it’s still helping.”

Butterfield added that a new technique his coach recently taught him has helped cut time in the event, changing his form to allow longer and faster strides. He said he expects to continue applying this technique and see an even greater time cut at the Class C state meet next week.

Haley Williams, a senior at Winthrop, is new to track and field this season, but is no stranger to the sport of running. In the fall, she was named Sun Journal All-Region Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year.

“Definitely the excitement and the other players pushed me today,” Williams said after finishing first with a personal-best time of 5:34 in the 1,600-meter run. “My coaches are always pushing me, and even though it’s really hot out, they told me that I’ve got this and that’s really nice to hear.”

Williams said she was not expecting a PR, considering the 83-degree temps beating down on the track at Lisbon High School, but she relied on cross country techniques to endure the longer race.

“I will say that I always start off slower because I have a better kick at the end, so I try to use that,” Williams said. “That’s definitely something that cross country has taught me.”

Williams set another personal record in the girls 800-meter run, finishing with a time of 2:32.97, four seconds faster than Boothbay’s Maddie Orchard, who came in second.

Another Winthrop senior, Christopher Pottle, won the 800 (personal-record 2:03.51), the 1,600 (4:47.31) and the 3,200 (10:38.18).

Helping the Lisbon/Oak Hill boys’ winning cause were first-place finishes by Nick Powell in the high jump (a school-record 6-4.25) and Kaden James in the shot put (41-8).

Farrell paced the Maranacook girls with wins in the 300 hurdles and the pole vault (8-6).

Other girls champions include Buckfield’s Carrier in the 400, Lisbon/Oak Hill’s Kassie Booker (1,600 race walk), Boothbay/Wiscasset’s Karen Higgins (3,200), Hall-Dale’s Violet Clark (high jump), Madison’s Ava Landry (javelin), Winthrop’s Madeline Wagner (discus) and Mt. Abram’s Joselyn Smith (shot put).

Lisbon/Oak Hill won the girls 4×400 relay and Boothbay/Wiscasset took first in the 4×800.

Teddy Wagner of Winthrop won the boys 400, Aiden Brann of Mt. Abram took first in the discus and Madison’s Bryan Donnelly claimed the boys pole vault championship.

The Mountain Valley boys had the fastest 4×100 relay, and Boothbay/Wiscasset placed first in the boys 4×800.

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