SACO – Muriel Schwinn’s face tightened up into one of those expressions your parents always warned would look funny if your face instantly froze.
Her arms and legs worked in unison as she pumped and kicked her way down the front stretch at Dr. Paul S. Hill Stadium at Thornton Academy. Her eyes were locked ahead of her, and they never wavered, even with another athlete advancing to her right.
Crossing the finish line as the anchor of the 4×100-meter relay, Schwinn relaxed, stumbled forward a bit and clung to the baton as she slowed.
EL wasn’t supposed to win that event. A school and state record of 50.41 seconds quickly changed that.
“The state record wasn’t even on our radar,” Schwinn said. “We were hoping to get a good time and try to move up to first and win the event, but a state championship record is a dream come true.”
Schwinn also moved up in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash and in the long jump, typifying a stellar day for the Eddies.
“This is just the best day I could have hoped for,” Schwinn said.
Emily Dodge added a school-record finish in the long jump, a title in the triple jump and a first-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles, the school’s racewalkers went 1-3-5 and its relays placed second, second and first, leading EL to a resounding 136-98 victory over Scarborough in the Class A girls’ state track and field championships.
“”I can’t even believe it right now,” EL coach Rebecca Hefty said. “
Dodge, who along with her senior teammates had to hustle back to the Twin Cities for graduation Saturday night, had been preparing hard for Saturday’s meet since the Eddies lost to Scarborough by two points at last year’s meet.
“Like our coach said, we really have been preparing for this meet since last year,” Dodge said. “The best thing about our whole team today is that we all knew we had room to improve our seeds.”
Dodge had a particularly busy day, earning three gold medals by day, and speaking to the Class of 2009 as its valedictorian by night.
“(The meet) was much more nerve-wracking,” Dodge said. “I didn’t even let myself think about what was going on at night. It was all about this meet.”
But for as many points as Dodge and Schwinn earned between them, the trademark of the Eddies’ team this season has been its depth.
“The kids all kept their heads on straight and had confidence that they could win a championship,” Hefty said. “We trained them all hard this season, right to KVAC’s, and then we tapered off this week.”
Abby Dunn in the racewalk, Hannah Mogensen in the mid-distance events, Emily Blackwood and Diana Kruszewski in the throws, Ashten Hackett in the hurdles and jumps, Abby Downs in the jumps, Jaclyn Masters in the racewalk and pole vault – the list goes on for what seems like forever.
“When we lost here last year by two points, we said, ‘Not again,'” Hefty said. “We worked from that day to figure out how we could build this team to come back here and win.”
Scarborough began the day seeded a few points ahead of EL.
“We still scored 22 more points this year than we did last year,” Scarborough coach Ron Kelly said.
The Red Storm earned top honors in the opening 4×800-meter relay and in the meet’s final event, the 4×400 relay, but earned no top spots the rest of the day, far fewer than the six for which they were seeded.
“You just have to tip your hat to them. They’re a great team, a great group of girls who’ve worked hard to get here this year,” Kelly said.
Bangor, Mt. Ararat and Brunswick rounded out the top five teams Saturday.
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