Every state has a particular sport for which it’s known when it comes to producing talented athletes.
For states like Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and New York, that sport is basketball. Kids grow up on skates in Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota. Football is king in Texas (and in most southern states).
With respect to the smattering of athletes who move on in the traditional sports of basketball, baseball and hockey, track and field continues to be the strongest source of overall success for teenage athletes in Maine.
This year alone, several long-standing records fell, and two local athletes earned spots on this year’s United States Track and Field Junior National team.
Edward Little High School’s Spencer Dunn and Lewiston High School’s Kayla Allen will be teammates this summer after qualifying for the U.S. Junior team last weekend at the USTF Junior Nationals in Eugene, Ore. Dunn finished a career-best third in 52 minutes, 6.53 seconds in the boys’ 10k race walk, while Allen placed fifth in 55:03.60 in the girls’ event.
“It’s really exciting because it’s such a far away place from where I live and it’s kind of cool because you’re in this place where so many athletes are going,” said Allen, who will be a junior next year. “People that have been to the Olympics and won, so it’s really exciting to know you’re racing on the same track as them. It’s honestly an honor.”
Allen is the first Blue Devil to earn a spot on Team USA.
Both will compete in the USA-Canada dual meet on Aug. 22 in Albany, N.Y., in the 5k race walk. Dunn’s bronze medal performance earned him a spot as a first alternate on the US team in the Pan Am Junior Championships in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in July. It’s the first time Dunn will take part in the Pan Am event.
“It was pretty awesome, especially placing third,” Dunn said. “The past two times I placed sixth and my freshman year I just squeaked onto the team and my sophomore year I did not make the team. It was pretty sweet to place third and definitely be on the team and solidify a spot.”
Dunn’s and Allen’s performances continued what has been a stellar month for Maine track and field athletes. The week before the race walking duo made its mark, Lake Region High School’s Kate Hall set a new national high school record in the long jump with a leap of 22 feet, 5 inches, at the New Balance Nationals Outdoor meet in Greensboro, N.C. Allen’s teammate at Lewiston, Isaiah Harris, set a new state record in the 800-meter run at the same event, running in 1:49.63 for a third-place finish. Hall and Harris had taken home three New England titles a week earlier.
Having trained all spring for the 1,600-meter race walk event at the high school level, the transition to training for the 10k is grueling — and short. Dunn and Allen had less than a month following the Class A state meet to prepare for the additional five miles.
“It’s very hard because we go from doing short things at practice to doing really long workouts that are really hard,” Allen said. “Knowing we only have a few weeks to prepare for it was a lot, but it was worth it.”
Last weekend’s performances were a bit of redemption for Dunn and Allen after coming so close to making the U.S. team the year before. With the U.S. team taking just the top four finishers in each event last year, both Dunn and Allen missed the opportunity by the slimmest of margins: Dunn placed sixth in 52:18.53, while Allen placed fifth in 57:31.08.
“I really wanted to get in that top four this year so I could secure a spot on the team,” Dunn said. “Last year it did kind of stink to not make the team, but it motivated me to work a lot harder.”
The two race walkers aren’t strangers. They used to train together with the Auburn Recreation summer track and field program. Competing now in the same high school conference, the two see plenty of one another at regular-season meets.
“I’d say we know each other pretty well,” Dunn said.
Typically, the Dunns — Spencer, his race walking sister Abby and their parents — will make the 3,250-mile trip to Eugene by car, taking turns driving for two consecutive days across the country. This year was a bit different, though. Due to a compact and hectic schedule, the siblings had to fly.
Dunn’s parents did continue the tradition of making the long haul west via car, meeting their children in Eugene.
Abby, meanwhile, is a decorated race walker in her own right who competes at NAIA Goshen College in Indiana.
Between Spencer and Abby, the Dunn family has visited Eugene four times since 2009.
In the seven USTF Junior Nationals of which the Dunns have been part, the family car has logged significant mileage. Other than the four trips to Eugene, the Dunns have traveled twice to Des Moines, Iowa, and once to Bloomington, Ind. Total mileage? Approximately 33,960 miles.
And that doesn’t take into account the trips to Greensboro for the New Balance Outdoor Championships.
“It’s been pretty surreal being able to travel to all these different places for these races across the country,” Spencer Dunn said. “It’s been a really enjoyable time. It’s been fun to do it for race walk because it’s something I really enjoy.”
The miles have been worth it. Spencer made the team as an alternate as a freshman and Abby clinched a spot all four years of high school, finishing runner-up her freshman and sophomore seasons.
“Since we’ve been going through it for the past eight or nine years between her and me, people have heard of the Dunns and they’re like, ‘Oh, are you the little brother of Abby?'” Dunn said. “She’s still continuing with NAIA college race walk so she is still in those race walking circles so people know her name.”
Allen and her family chose to fly to Oregon this year.
Dunn started race walking at an early age, joining the Auburn Rec program when he was “six or seven.” He’s won his fair share of hardware over the years, his biggest feat coming at the New Balance Nationals last year, winning the meet in 7:10.44. Dunn also claimed the Class A title as a freshman and is the three-time defending KVAC champion.
While Dunn follows in the footsteps of his older sister, who is an 11-time high school All-American, 4-time NAIA All-American and a 4-time state and KVAC race walk champion, Allen said she was drawn to the sport for its uniqueness.
“I did track in seventh grade and I wasn’t that great at it, but I did race walk and it was just something I fell in love with,” Allen said. “It was different. I had never heard of it before. It was something I could really get into and I knew I could potentially get good at and I did and I was exciting about it.”
Allen made a splash in her first two years at the high school level, winning the Class A and KVAC titles each year. She also shaved off more than two minutes from her inaugural 10k at U.S. nationals.
“She’s somebody that really has a passion for the sport, passion for the event,” Allen’s race walking coach Tom Menendez said. “Every time she gets out there she wants to improve a little bit.”
The success has come a lot faster than she anticipated.
“I went into it thinking it was something fun to do,” Allen said. “I never knew I could get as good, but I have and it’s exciting and I never knew that it could happen that way.”
Allen will be joined on the U.S. team by Menendez. This will be Menendez’s third time in the past five years coaching the team. Menendez was nominated by his peers and voted on by a committee to serve as the coach.
“I’ve been involved with the race walkers for about a dozen years,” Menendez said. “I had a young lady come up to me and ask me if I could coach her and I said, ‘Yeah let’s take a shot at it,’ and it’s been going on for about a dozen years. It’s a very small community and I’m thinking there’s about four or five kids that made the team this year that were on the team three years ago when I was the coach.”
Allen is looking forward to working with Menendez through the summer.
“It’s so great,” Allen said. “He’s like a second dad to me. He’s so nice and he’s extremely inspiring. He always pushes me to do my very best and to never give up.”
Menendez’s daughter, Nicole Court-Menendez, is an All-American race walker at Dakota Wesleyan in Mitchell, S.D. Tom Menendez runs a summer program in Auburn, where he coached Abby Dunn. Menendez thinks highly of her brother.
“He’s definitely one of the better boy race walkers in the country,” Menendez said.
Dunn and Allen both said their goals this summer with the U.S. Junior team is to get try for personal bests and get to know their teammates, who come from all across the country.
With two race walking members on the U.S. Junior team coming from Maine, Dunn said it reflects positively on the sport in the area.
“That says a lot about the programs in the area, especially race walking in particular,” Dunn said. “The kids that come out of these two cities are really good at this event and take it really far. The coaches in the local area and around Maine have gotten us to these places.”
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