Today was the first meet of the season with full sun and temps in the 70s. Of course, since we were inland in Maine in mid May decent temperatures and no wind brings great sprint races but also extraordinary amounts of bugs. Although they were distracting at first and learning how to stay out of the sun was a foreign idea everyone adjusted well and we left Sacopee Valley on time (or even early) with some great performances on our hands. The boys finished 2nd behind Sacopee Valley and the girls were 3rd.
Jake Burns started the track events off with his first ever 110m hurdle races and posted a provisional state qualifying time that earned him a 3rd place finish. Next up was a strong series of 100m dashes. The heat definitely helped to warm up and allow muscles to operate at full strength and the times showed it. All 4 athletes who ran the 100m dash ran season or career bests. In the 200m dash the same phenomenon occured but to an even greater degree as El Tayeb was somehow able to cut over 1 second off his best 200m time.
The distance events didn’t fare as well with the heat but times weren’t that far off either. Grant McPherson showed that last week’s 800 was no fluke with a strong win in the 800m after leading the race from start to finish. His final time of 2:06 was another big jump. In the 1600m Alex Coffin was just a hair off his career best finishing 2nd in 4:47. In the 3200m Cam Regan and Evan Kendall went 1-2 with Cam finishing in 10:29 (a new top 5 time) with Evan right behind him at 10:34.
A new set of faces graced the track in the boys 4x400m (after somehow standing at the starting line yet missing the race start….) Mo, Cam Rayder, El Tayeb, and Ethan combined for a 2nd place finish.
In the field events 2 of 3 boys high jumpers hit 5’4″ which is a nice improvement and lets Nick Rayder join Asad on the provisional state qualifying list. In the boys Javelin Robert Field hit a nice career best of 108′ which was good for 3rd place while over in the discus circle Brian Trelegan made his debut in the discus hurling it a bit over 50′. On the girls side Kayla Rose had a nice season best in the discus with a toss of 59’3″ which was good for 4th while Morgan Scully’s throw of 68′ won the event. In the shot circle 5 of 7 throwers hit career bests. All three girls hit new benchmarks with Julia Thompson throwing over 21′ for the first time, Kayla Rose hitting 23′ for the first time and Morgan Scully throwing over 27′ f or the first time which was good for 2nd place and a provisional state qualifying distance. On the boys side Robert Field and AJ Hardy had impressive improvements. Robert added almost 3 feet throwing 34’9″ while AJ added 2 and a half feet to hit 37’5″ and qualify provisionally for states. Cam Rayder was able to win the event with a toss of 39′.
The golden shoe was given to Elanor West on the girls side for her double season best in the 100m dash and the Javelin. Elanor flew down the track in the 100m and took half a second off her career best. On the boys side the shoe was given to AJ Hardy for his massive career best in the shot. All 3 of AJ’s throws were 2+ feet over his previous best. Congratulations to all.
Many of the athletes took the meet easy today in preperation for the MAISAD Championships on Saturday at the Hyde School in Bath.
