SACO – At first it looked like a ploy to lure Deering’s Mike Burleson into a quick pace on the back straightaway of the 800-meter run.
With about 300 meters left, Edward Little’s Chris Pelliccia went into a full sprint. People in the crowd started murmuring, wondering if Pelliccia would have enough left in him to finish the race on top.
Showing the form that allowed him to win the 800-meter title in 2001, Pelliccia outkicked Burleson down the front straightaway, reclaiming the title by 1.16 seconds. More importantly to Pelliccia was the points that helped give his team a victory.
Three finishers in the top four in the 800-meter run combined with two top-three finishers in the 100-, 200- and 400-meter runs to lift the Edward Little boys to a 110-82 win over Deering, giving the Red Eddies their first Class A state title since 1999 and ending South Portland’s three-year stranglehold on the meet. The win also thwarted Deering’s attempt to win all three running-sport state titles in the same academic year. The Rams had already won in cross country and in indoor track.
“At the start of this year we told the kids to forget about last year’s meet,” said EL coach Dan Campbell. “We had new goals to reach, and this was the first one mentioned.”
Facing a tough Deering team that won last week’s SMAA meet by three points, the Red Eddies used a tough strategy that, although strenuous on a few runners, was eventually worth the toil.
“I was afraid to double my athletes up in the 400 and the 800,” said Deering coach Dick Kress. “They weren’t afraid at all. They did it and it worked.”
Pelliccia and Nate Cleveland finished third and second respectively in the 400-meter run, and first and fourth in the 800 to give EL 28 points. Deering ran four different runners in those events and countered with 22 points.
“That was the turning point of the meet,” said Pelliccia. “We went through really slow on the first lap, and I had a lot left in the tank. The only strategy we really had was to finish ahead of Deering one for one.”
Another boost for EL came from Jackson Keene in the discus. Keene finished third and earned six points. Last week at the SMAA meet, Deering placed second and fifth in the discus. On Saturday, the Rams managed just a fourth and a sixth.
“He came to me afterwards and apologized,” said Campbell. “I’m not sure that he realized how good that was for us at the time.”
As expected, Will Claxton and Matt Capone finished in the top three in the two sprint events. The EL 4×400-meter and 4×100-meter relay teams both set school records on Saturday. Sydney Harrison of Morse claimed the 100- and 200-meter titles, while Eric Giddings bested the field in both the 1,600 and 3,200-meter runs.
Edward Little finished with 110 points to Deering’s 82. South Portland was a distant third with 58, followed by Sanford with 53 and Portland with 43.66.
Sweet Sweep for Thornton
If any one Edward Little athlete had finished just one place higher, the Red Eddies would have completed a sweep of the Class A state track championships on Saturday. Instead, Thornton Academy followed up its indoor track championship with one in the rain, holding off a strong Edward Little charge to claim its first ever outdoor track title 83-81.25.
“We lost out on second place last year by 1/2 a point to EL last year,” said Thornton coach Tom Langstaff. “After last week, we knew that we were going to have a tight one here again today.”
Erin Hatch led the Trojans with first-place finishes in both hurdle events and a second place in the high jump. In the pole vault, Thornton dominated, taking first, second and fifth to offset Ally Thomas of Edward Little’s third-place finish.
“There’s no question that’s a big event for us,” said Langstaff. “Between the pole vault and the hurdles, that’s really where the meet was won.”
Edward Little had a few chances to come back later in the meet. In the 1,600-meter run, Sarah Crispin finished in fourth place, two places off her No. 2 seed. In the discus, Kristen Keene fell two feet short of third place, instead garnering a No. 4 finish. In the 4×400-meter relay, Thornton outkicked EL by less than four seconds to take third place, and in the 4×800-meter relay, EL took sixth after being seeded fourth.
“There’s really no one person to blame or one race you can look at and say that it’s the one,” said EL coach Steve Robertson. “I made a strategic move that didn’t work out, and maybe I shouldn’t have made it, but that’s the way it goes. You hate to lose, but this was still a great meet.”
Andrea Giddings of South Portland set a new state record in the 3,200-meter run with a time of 11:07.44. Giddings, a senior, is also the reigning Class A cross country running champion. Carly Lochala of Mt. Blue won the racewalk, while Messalonskee runners swept first place in the 100-, 200-, 400- and 800-meter races.
jpelletier@sunjournal.com
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