The Waterville girls swept the throws and did very well in the jumps on their way to taking the girls team title at the Waterville Relays on Saturday April 21st. The running events, particularly distance, were dominated by the second place Mt. Ararat Eagles The Leavitt Hornets, defending KVAC Class B Champions, claimed enough of the sprint events to collect the third spot.
Gardiner, MCI, Mt. Blue, Spruce Mountain, and Oceanside competed the eight team field. For throws, jumps, and the 1600 meter run each of a team's top three competitor's marks are aggregated to determine the winner and other places. In addition to the typical 4 X 100, 4 x 400, and 4 X 800, there was a 4 x 200, sprint medley (200, 100, 100, 400), a distance medley (800, 400, 1200, 1600), a hurdle shuttle, and a coed race-walk relay.
For the boys Mt. Ararat's dominance on the track-the Eagles took every relay-gave them the margin they needed over second place Leavitt. The hosts took the third spot. MCI, Oceanside, Spruce Mountain, Mt. Blue, and Gardiner followed.
The Mt. Ararat boys also took the high jump and the long jump. The Hornets of Leavitt pinned down the second spot with a combination of frequent second place finishes in the relays and wins at the triple jump, and shot put. A bright spot for Oceanside was the discus where their boys took first. Spruce Mountain claimed the top place in the boys javelin.
When boys and girls results were combined the Eagles prevailed overall with Waterville taking the second spot and Leavitt third.
The nature of the relays make it hard to single out individual performers.. For instance, the sprint medley totals 800 meters but requires the anchor running the 400 to take half the race. In addition, the large number of relays ups the mileage for nearly everyone so peak performances are fewer than in a typical meet. Moreover because of the number of races there are fewer opportunities for head-to-head races between elite runners in this early season race.
Even so the spectators were treated to a fine 1600 meter race between Waterville's Nick Dall and Mt. Ararat's Lisandro Berry-Gaviria as the pair left 20 seconds between themselves and the rest of the field. Berry-Gaviria pulled way late to finish first at 4:30.31, while Dall crossed at 4:34.89. The Mt Ararat girls promise to bring a dangerous 1-2-3 combination to the 1600 this spring as senior Katherine Leckbee finished first in the 1600 with freshmen Karli Leighton and Camila Ciembroniewicz taking the next two spots.
Sarah Cox and Jennasea Hubbard led the Waterville throwers. Hubbard's top javelin throw of 88-08 combined with throws by Cox and Maddie Hallen gave the Panthers a total of 238-10. Cox hurled the discus 109-08 to lead Hubbard and Brooklyn Lagueux to a team total of 273-11. The Panthers trio of Cox, Hubbard and Mya Wasilewski claimed the top aggregate shot put score, but MCI's Christa Carr had the best individual performance at 34-03.75, just about six inches further than Cox.
Waterville's Sophia Poole, Amaryllis Charles, and Jenamarie Boston high jumped a combined 11-04 for the top team spot. In the triple jump the Panthers (81-10.75) edged Mt. Ararat (79-09.5) as Ella Ruchsen's top individual jump of 29-01.75 led a Panther trio that included Ella Moody and Maddie Hallen. The Panthers also took the hurdle shuttle.
Most of these teams return to action next week in traditional meets. Oceanside will visit Camden Hills, Waterville will meet at Maranacook, Mt. Blue travels to Oxford Hills, and MCI and Leavitt will both see the Eagles again next week at Mt. Ararat. Gardiner will have a home meet.