For the fourth consecutive year the Edward Little women's team left McMann Field in Bath with the hardware. The Red Eddies repeated yet again as KVAC Class A Champion amassing 172.50 points. This year's runners-up were the Eddies' cross-river rivals from Lewiston with 141 points, Mt Ararat followed in third place with 111 in the seven team field.
For the second year there were more points available for the larger squads as Class A in the KVAC has just seven teams. As a result the seven scoring places were divided among the seven teams rather than the nine squads that existed before realignment prior to the 2017-18 season. Where the Class B meets were characterized by a waterfall starts for distance events, the Class A meets featured occasional empty lanes and, in a few cases, last place finishers being awarded points.
How did EL do it
Their scoring leader was junior Julia Berube with firsts in the 100 meter hurdles (16.15) and the triple jump (34-09.5). Berube also claimed the third spot in the 300 meter hurdles. The junior had plenty of company wearing maroon singlets on the podium as EL took four positions in the 100 hurdles, and three in the triple jump.
Senior Jillian Richardson made sportswriter's jobs easy by doing exactly what she did last year. She crushed the field in the 1600, running 5.23.97 to defend last year's title, then ran to a comfortable first place for the eight laps of the 3200 to finish in 11:36.45, about half a minute ahead of her nearest competitor. This was her third consecutive 3200 Championship, as a freshman she had been runner-up. Between the events Richardson also gritted out a fifth place finish in the 800 to help out while setting a new personal mark of 2:29.17.
The 800 was a speedy affair as defending champion Maddie Wayne of Brunswick got off to a fast start before giving way to relative new comer Hannah Mckenney of Skowhegan. McKenney, a sophomore, took three-seconds off of her prior best time to run a 2:22.77. Mt. Ararat's Camila Ciembroniewicz made a strong move at about 650 meters to overtake Wayne near the final turn and finished second. Messalonskee's Charlotte Wentworth made it a trio following McKenney down the final stretch competing for the second spot but finished third, just ahead of Wayne.
Mckenney also torched the field in the 400 with a 59.62. With McKenney's rapid ascendency, it will be interesting to see if she can maintain her rankings among the Southern Maine elite next week at States in Lewiston.
Ella Boucher again scored in four events for the Eddies jumping 16-10 to take the long jump with a new personal best. Boucher also took the second spot in the 300 Meter hurdles and tagged on a fourth place finish in the 200 and a fifth place finish in the 100. The sophomore scored in four individual events for the second year in a row.
The final individual champion for the Eddies was Olivia Jalbert who took the high jump at 5-0 on jumps over teammate and runner up Brooklyn Alexander. A first year, Alexander also took second in the 100 meter hurdles and collected points with a sixth place finish in the triple jump.
Lewiston collected big points in the throws as Laila Bunnitt won the discus (118, PR) and Benedict Citenga (33-9.5) won the shot put. The duo switched places for runner-up positions in each event. The Blue Devil's Sydney Roy took third in the discus and sixth in the shot while Madison Roy and Brooke Cloutier each placed in the javelin. Lewiston collected 52 of its 141 points from its throwers.
First year Amelia Wedderburn won the 100 (12.90) and took second in the 200, trailing just winner Halle James of Oxford Hills. James time of 26.61 was a new personal mark, she also took second in the 100. Wedderburn also collected a third place finish in the long jump.
Katrina Bolduc took the pole vault for Lewiston at 8-0 and also placed in the long jump. Lewiston's final individual winner on the day was Alexis Freeman who took the 1600 meter race-walk at 9:55.
The Blue Devils also claimed the 4 x 100 championship. Both the 4 x 400 and the 4 x 800 were won by Messalonskee.
Jadah Adams repeated as the KVAC javelin champion with a throw of 117-11, Adams also placed in the shot put.
Mt. Ararat's lone title came in the 300 meter hurdles where last year's runner-up, Katie Lynch, blazed to the win with a new personal best of 48.72. Camila Ciembroniewicz scored well for the Eagles. In addition to her strong second place finish the the competitive 800 she took the third spots in both the 1600 and 3200. Also collecting big points for Mt. Ararat was junior Wyley Fitzpatrick with second place finishes in the 400 as well as both the long and triple jumps.