With an even 100 points the Cheverus Stags defended their State Class A Girls Championship. This is the third consecutive year Cheverus has claimed the title. They were third in 2016.
Last year in this space we pointed put that the scoring break-down for the Stags in 2018 pointed to a likely repeat in 2019. Only one scorer from the 2018 championships team graduated, and her scoring contribution was a leg of a sixth place finishing 4 x 800 effort.
For the third season running Cheverus dominated the short distances and the sandy jumps, and wrapped the meet by taking first in the 4 x 400.
Down the field there were slight differences as Thornton Academy, runners-up the past two seasons, slid to third. Last year's third place finishers, the Gorham Rams, took home the second place hardware this time.
Gorham finished with 71 points just edging TA (68.5). Rounding out the top five were Scarborough (54) and Falmouth (40). In an interesting quirk, the host Lewiston Blue Devils ended in a tie for the eighth position with their neighbor across the river, Edward Little.
Senior Emma White, who led the Stags in points in the 2018 Championship meet was right in the mix again. White defended her 2018 triple jump title going 37-10 to best last year's winning mark by six inches. White also collected a brace of second place medals in the long jump and a 100 meter hurdles where she set a new personal mark at 15.50. White will be keeping her talents local next season at the University of Maine.
Victoria Bossong squeezed everything allowed under the rules out of her sophomore campaign with four titles. Bossong took three individual titles in the 100 (12.31), 200 (24.80), and 400 (55.54), setting a meet record in the process in the 200 & 400. Bossong's final medal came in the 4 x 400 as she anchored the winning relay team which included Rosie Train, Evelyn Hanley, and Emma Gallant. Train a senior, also collected points as part of the fifth place finishing 4 x 800 team, while Hanley netted a sixth place medal in the 100 meter hurdles.
Gallant was the Stags' second highest scorer as she was runner-up to Bossong in the 100 (12.46, PR), 200, and 400. The junior also had a hand in winning the 4 x 400 run.
Rounding out the individual point scorers for the Stags was thrower Lauren Jordan with a seventh at the discus and a fourth place in the shot put circle. In addition to Train the 4 x 800 team included Hannah Galeucia, Grace Turner, and Tholia Hallett.
Cheverus will probably be in the mix for 2020 but White's points will be missed.
If Cheverus sprinted to victory then Gorham strode to the runner-up position.
The Rams collected twenty-one points in the 1600 meter race-walk. Junior Stef Meacham led a quartet of Rams to take the second, third, fourth and fifth positions. Only Hampden's Moxie Flanagan, bested the Gorham striders as she took the title in the 1600 meter race-walk for the second consecutive year in a time of 7:53.33, a new best mark.
A second quartet , and a young one, featured heavily in the Rams' scoring as their 4 x 100 team claimed the top spot. Led by first year Sydney Connolly, who, on her own, took fourth places in the 100 and 200, the 4 x 100 team included two other first years, Maddie Michaud and Emma Green, and one sophomore, Nevaeh Moore.
Kate Tugman and Alyvia Caruso each scored well for Gorham. Caruso placed third in the long jump and fifth in the 300 meter hurdles. Caruso also took a leg of the sixth place finishing 4 x 400 team.
Tugman, who challenged eventual winner Sofie Matson of Falmouth for the first 600 meters of the 1600 before fading to finish seventh rebounded in the 3200. She emerged from a trio that included Falmouth's Karley Piers and Hampden's Helen Shearer. The group had exchanged the secondary lead a few times while Matson ran by herself on the way to a comfortable win at 10:33.05. Matson's winning time in the 1600 was 4:59.29, the sophomore's best time to date and first time sub-5.
Falmouth had another individual winner as Emma Harrington took the 2019 discus crown with a winning throw of 125-04, a new personal best.
The third place Trojans of Thornton Academy saw Alli Gross and Jaigan Boudreau visit the podium twice each. Gross placed in the high jump and earned second place in the javelin. Meanwhile Boudreau, the 2018 discus champion placed second this year while also collecting the second place in the shot put.
Thornton first year Mia-Claire Kezal shocked the field by blazing to a 2:18.82 to claim the 800 meter championship. Kezal nipped South Portland's Anna Folley at the line. Just a week ago Folley had claimed first at Southwesterns with Kezal finishing third behind Folley and Bonney Eagles's Hannah Stevens. Kezal's time was a new personal best. She shaved almost three-seconds of her prior mark. But that was the order of the day: six of the seven scorers in the 800 established new personal bests.
Portland's Jaidyn Appel took second in the high jump while the defending champion, Westbrook's Nyagoa Bayak, was able to cruise to another title. Although she currently holds the meet record at 5-11 Bayak did not get a chance to try to extend it. 5-08 was the final height she cleared on this day.
Bangor's Alyssa Elliott took the long jump at 17-06. The sophomore is a two-time champion on the year Elliott jumped 17-10 indoors to win the Indoor Championship in February.
Syeira New collected the only title on the day for Massabesic running the 300 meter hurdles in 45.50 with margin of just under a second on Scarborough's Emily Labbe.
Labbe reclaimed her title in the 100 meter hurdles. In 2018 Labbe won the most closely contested race of the day. Her time in the 100 hurdles (14.75) had just bested runner-up Nina Tasker from Noble by 0.01. The race was too close to call and the runners had to stand in their lanes waiting for board to light up with result. This year the junior from Scarborough had some breathing room as her time of 15.08 allowed her ease across the line alone. Junior Anna Gardner added to Scarborough's hardware with a win in the pole vault at 10-0.
Julia Allen got Sanford in the books with a personal best javelin throw of 118-03. It was Allen's first state title as she placed third last year.
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Bonny Eagle's lone win on the day came right at the opening as their 4 x 800 team claimed its third consecutive title.
The host Blue Devils of Lewiston were also able to collect a championship. Benedict Citenga, runner-up in 2018, threw the shot put 37-87.5 for a new personal best and a championship.
