YARMOUTH — There are many ways to win a state championship track meet.
The Winslow boys and Greely girls proved as much Saturday at the Class B outdoor track and field state championships at Yarmouth High School.
For the Black Raiders, it was a few standout performances, while the Rangers used a few points from various events and athletes to secure their title.
“We had some really awesome performances,” Winslow boys’ coach Ken Nadeau said. “Ben Smith had a great day, scoring over 30 points. Jake Warn scored 26. Max (Spaulding) must have been in the mid-20s. We had some really elite performances.
“Just our kids placing where they should, and then placing up, helped us long-term throughout the day.”
The Black Raiders paced the field with 98 points, three more than runner-up Mount Desert Island, to win their first team title since 1966.
Winslow finished right behind the winning Trojans in the meet-ending 4×400-meter relay to secure the title.
“It was stressful,” Nadeau said. “I knew we had to come in a minimum of third. We were up by five. We could have came in third and still won by a point, which is not how I would like to do it. So getting that second and kind of sealing it was awesome.”
Smith won both the 100 and 200-meter dashes, and was second in the 400 dash. Warn was runner-up to his teammate in the 100 and 200, and also won the triple jump. Spaulding, along with Spencer Miranda and Jamie Sears, added bunches of points for Winslow.
The Trojans got wins in the 4×400 and 4×800 relays, and also got individual titles from Noah Hutchinson in the high jump and Croix Albee in the shot put.
Third-place York was paced by Zach Westman (first in 300-meter hurdles, second in 110-meter high hurdles, long jump and triple jump) and Jake Martin (first in 110 high hurdles, second in 300 hurdles).
The host Clippers of Yarmouth finished fourth thanks to three wins by Luke Laverdiere (800, 1,600 and 3200-meter runs) and another by Tahj Garvey (400).
Wins weren’t as prevalent for the Greely girls, but that was perfectly fine for the Rangers.
“Lots of bits and pieces,” Greely girls’ coach John Folan said. “We fell behind a few times early, then we’d crawl back in and just nickel-and-dime things all over the place.
“We only had two wins all day. Everything else was just where can you pick a few up and hope to push York and MDI back out a little bit, and it just worked out.”
The Rangers finished with a total of 67 points, beating York by eight and MDI by 19.
Katherine Leggat-Barr won the 3,200 and was second in the 1,600, while Carolyn Todd finished third and fourth in those respective races.
“We were depending on that,” Folan said.
Morgan Selby won the 300 hurdles in what Folan called “a little bit of an upset,” and Lizzy Brown’s personal-best jump of 5 feet, 2 inches for second place in the high jump was a big surprise for the Greely coach.
The runner-up Wildcats got a win in the 4×400 relay, but otherwise used solid placings across the board to finish second.
The Trojans won the 4×800 relay and also got a pair of individual victories from Tia Tardy (800 and 1,600). Tardy set a new Class B state meet record in the 800 with a time of 2:14.76. She also set the Class C state meet record when she ran for Orono last year.
Gray-New Gloucester finished fifth with 35 points, slotting between Belfast (38) and Kennebunk (34.5). Starring for the Patriots was Madie Post, who won the 200, finished second in the 100, and rallied her 4×100 relay team from a big deficit all the way to victory.
“When there’s so much distance you got to do the best you can to catch up, and it was just crazy,” Post said.
Post’s Patriots relay team edged out Leavitt. The Hornets finished tied for 13th as a team, equaling Spruce Mountain with 24 points.
Nikki Daigle beat out Post for the 100 dash title, and also finished fourth in the 200.
“I felt good, but I still knew that they could take it away from me at any second,” a victorious Daigle said. “Seeing them in my peripheral vision, that was pretty scary.”
Emily White had no one in sight on her way to the girls’ 1,600-meter race walk title. The Spruce Mountain sophomore beat freshman teammate Isabelle Castonguay by more than 40 seconds.
“I had teammates on the sidelines, I asked them every time I went through how far back they were,” White said. “Today I think I just had to like try and pace myself. Every time I went by the finish line I would look at the clock to see how far I was, and try and think ‘well I need to get this time in order to get this time at the end of it.'”
On finishing 1-2 with Castonguay, White said: “I remember what it was like last year getting second as a freshman, I was so happy. To be one and two, it’s just great, as a freshman and a sophomore.”
Elesha Pratt finished second in the 110 hurdles to help Poland score 10 points, which placed the Knights in a tie for 20th.
On the boys’ side, Leavitt’s Ryan Pratt was third in the race walk to score his team’s six points, while Gray-New Gloucester got sixth-place finishes from Andrew Peterson (100 dash) and Joseph Gurney (shot put) to make up the Patriots’ four points.
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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