Class A Girls State Meet Preview
(A Special to MaineTrackXC from Tim Even)
The Class A Girls State Meet In Brewer will be a perfect send off for one of Maine’s female sprinters over the past few years. Senior Teal Jackson and the Brewer Witches, will welcome all Class A challengers to their oval for the 2013 State Championship Meet. Jackson will try to help her team defend their home turf as she holds 4 class A leading marks in the 100m, 200m, 400m, and long jump. Jackson has had an outstanding career and hopes to go out in style as she enters her final state meet before graduating. She and teammate Synclaire Tasker will try to be a 2 girl wrecking crew as they are seeded to score a combined 64 points between 7 events. Those 2 girls, and the luxury of competing on the track they practice on makes the Witches one of the favorites to challenge for a state title. To pull it off, they will have to go through Sam Cox, Audrey Weyand and the high-powered distance motor of Bonny Eagle, Grace Maclean and the Bangor Rams, Charolette Pierce and company from Thornton, 
This meet will have the Maine All-Time best 800m runner in Erzsebet Nagy of Lawrence (2:13.50). She will attempt the 1600, 800, 3200 triple where she holds the top seed for each. Look for her to be challenged by a whole host of tough competitors including Charlotte Pierce of Thornton Academy who holds the 2 seed in both the 1600m and 3200m, and Sam Cox of Bonny Eagle who is the # 3 seed in the 1600m and #2 seed in the 800m and will run a leg on both the 4x400 and 4x800. The races between those athletes will prove to be crucial to the final team standings, as each of their respective teams have a chance to be standing above the rest at days end.
The sprinting side of things promises to be a barnburner as well. Audrey Weyand and Teal Jackson will square off 3 times Saturday, most notably in a 400m final where they are both seeded at sub-60 and could push each other to a state record time. Dakotah Clement of Noble looks to continue her outstanding senior year as she is ranked #2 in the 100m and #3 in the 200m. Clement, Jackson, and Weyand could all challenge the 200m record as well as their seed times sit right around it. In fact, Jackson’s name could be involved with more than one state record, as two of her seed times are below the previously set marks (100m and 200m). The 100m record is 12.25 while the 200 record is 25.49.
On the jumping and hurdling side of things Grace Maclean of Bangor holds top 5 seeds in 4 events including a top state mark in the 100m hurdles. She and teammate Denae Johnson hold seed times that are close to Jesse Labreck’s state record time of 14.48, so keep an eye on that race. Cony’s outstanding Lindsey Folsom has an inch on another Cony great, Bethany Dumas’s 2006 pole vault record of 11’06” so keep and eye on that as well on Saturday afternoon. Bangor who won the indoor title thanks to a huge effort in the pole vault is in position to do it again as the Rams have 4 athletes who have jumped over 9-0 including 3 over 10-0.
An exciting team battle and lots of great individual performances are on tap for Saturday…As Terrell Owens would say “get your popcorn ready”