Maine Athletes break records, earn ALL-NE awards
The final opportunity for most Maine track & field athletes to chase records & personal bests came at the 25th New England Championship meet @ Reggie Lewis Center.
The sub 5 minute mile barrier has finally been broken on the girls side as Waterville HS distance star Bethanie Brown became the first Maine HS girl to achieve the standard. The junior standout took over the lead after the 400 and lead until the final lap. Brown pushed the pace but was unable to hold off Rhode Island’s Molly Keating, but did cross the line in second place with a huge personal best 4:56.35 Bethanie clocked splits of 72, 2:26, 3:42 en route to the record breaking performance. The record that she broke was that of Wendy Delan 5:00.6 which was set 26 years ago
Another Maine indoor all-time best went down in the girls 600m as Scarborough’s Emily Tolman broke the old record of 1:35.93 held Beth Wilcox with her win in the 3rd section. Interesting fact Wilcox was also a twin just like Tolman. Tolman was clocked in 1:35.65, which was good for 4th place overall, her time ranks her #22 in the country. Emily took over the lead just before the 400m mark and used her strength to pull away from the rest of competitors in her heat over the final 200m.
In the girls 2 mile Kirsten Sandreuter of Greely ran a strong race to finish as the NE runner-up. Sandreuter was always near the front of the pack going through the mile in 5:25, en route to her personal best 10:57.15 clocking. The dimninitive sophomore broke the 11 minute barrier for the first time, and her time was ME#2, & US #43
The boys 2 mile saw distance standouts Matt McClintock (Madison) & Harlow Ladd (Messlonskee) both finish up on the podium. Both men were in the lead pack the entire race, with McClintock taking the pace for a couple of laps late in race. McClintock used a strong last 200m to move up into 3rd edging out Ladd 9:20.02 to 9:20.42. The times rank 28th & 29th nationally.
Waterville’s Nick Margitza continued his strong throwing in the shot put, as once again he was out over the 53 ft barrier (53-1 1/4) good for 5th place overall.
In the girls 1000m sophomore Aleta Looker (Ellsworth) finished 2nd in section 1, clocking a fine 2:58.16. Looker’s time would hold up well as she would finish 5th to earn ALL-NE honors. It helped that the winning time in her heat went to Becky Madsen, who ran the 6th fastest time in the country, & broke the meet record en route to NE title with her 2:50.11
Top ten performances came from Miguel Caballero (Orono) in the long jump as his 21-3 leap paced him 8th. in the girls mile, Cheverus senior Fiona Hendry nabbed 9th place with a seasonal best 5:12.57. Carly McKenna (TA) earned 10th place with a clearance of 5-3 in the high jump. In the 300m dash Jacob Campbell of Belfast finished 10th with a time of 36.87. Boys mile saw Gorham's Jesse Orach claim atop 10 finish with his 4:31.75
State leading times also came from the Falmouth boys 4x200, as they ran 1:34.97.