Edward Little’s Ella Boucher, left, and Grace Fontaine run the 300-meter hurdles during a rainy Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference track meet Saturday at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham. (Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal)
TOPSHAM — By the time the 4×400-meter relay came around the final race of the KVAC outdoor track championships served as four victory laps for both the Edward Little boys’ and girls’ teams.
The Red Eddies swept the Class A team titles in dominating fashion at Mt. Ararat High School — the girls won by 53.5 points, and the boys by 40, after winning the 4×400 anyway.
“I’m really excited. Since the beginning of the year this was our goal, to try to come in here and win this meet together,” EL coach Rebecca Hefty said. “Hasn’t been done in a long time.”
Messalonskee was second behind EL in the girls’ competition, scoring 125.5 points to the Red Eddies’ 178. The Lewiston boys scored 137 points to finish runner-up behind rival EL (177 points). Host Mt. Ararat finished third for both girls (98) and boys (83).
In Class B, Lincoln Academy won its first KVAC boys’ title, beating runner-up Cony by 10 points (91 to 81) and not needing to worry about the final relay. On the girls’ side, it came down to the 4×400, and Cony’s second-place showing secured a victory over Maranacook, which trailed by just 0.5 points before finishing sixth in the relay.
“We told the kids that the meet was on the line: ‘Last event, you guys can’t leave anything on the track,'” Cony coach Jon Millett said. “They PR’ed, and Maranacook, their last runner was pretty scary. But the girls, as a collective team — that’s why it’s a four-person relay — we were just too much.”
Lincoln sewed up its title with a 21-point performance in the penultimate track event, the 3,200-meter run. Sam Russ won, Jarrett Gulden was third, Benji Pugh fifth and Josiah Martin sixth.
“Certainly we had confidence in our distance squad,” Lincoln coach Garrett Martin said. “We’re the defending state champs in cross country, so you expect that to carry over a little bit.”
Cony won the boys’ 4×400 to narrow the gap and give the Rams a runner-up finish ahead of Winslow. The Black Raiders were led by Max Spaulding, who won the 110- and 300-meter hurdles and the 400 and 200-meter dashes.
Both of Edward Little’s teams were strong when it came to sprints and hurdles. On the girls’ side, freshman Lindy Hyndman won both the 100- and 200-meter dashes and was on the winning 4×100-meter relay team.
“I’ve been working a lot on my block-starts every day, and I think that really helped me, finally being able to push out with blocks,” said Hyndman, who edged out teammate Ella Boucher in the 200.
Boucher also placed third in the 100, to go along with wins in the 300 hurdles and the long jump. Grace Fontaine won the 100-meter hurdles and was third in the 300.
Barrack Abdraba and Connor Jackson split the boys’ hurdle races. Abdraba beat Jackson in a photo finish in the 110 before Jackson had an easier victory over Abdraba in the 300.
“We always run together, and it’s always so close. To be honest, I thought he beat me by a little bit (in the 110 hurdles), but I actually beat him,” Abdraba said. “At the end of the day, what matters is that we’re making points for the team, and that’s what matters to me, to be honest.”
“It’s usually very even,” Jackson said. “Every race, so far, it’s been neck and neck between me and Barrack.”
The EL boys got more wins from Fabrice Mpoyo (100 and 200), Matt Syphers (racewalk) and Alex Thompson (pole vault). The Red Eddies girls received other victories from Jillian Richardson (1,600 and 3,200) and Lauren Berube (pole vault).
“Every kid stepped up to the plate today,” Hefty said.
The Lewiston boys were led by Connor Kaplinger (first in discus, second in javelin, sixth in shot put, anchor leg of 4×100 relay), Hussein Noor (shot put winner), Lucas Nichols (long jump champ), and Kamundala Crispin (first in triple jump), as well as victories in the 4×100 and 4×800 relays.
“It means a lot to the guys, senior year, come out with a bang,” Kaplinger said after the 4×100 relay.
Of his discus win, Kaplinger said: “I really got a nice chuck and just built off of it.”
The Lewiston girls finished fifth (62 points), behind Oxford Hills (69). The Vikings were paced by wins in the shot put and discus by Maighread Laliberte and Jadah Adams’ javelin victory. Messalonskee’s runner-up finish came on the back of Charlotte Wentworth’s win in the 400, a 4×400 relay victory and a handful of solid placings.
Dawson Stevens (first in javelin, second in 100, third in 200) and Dominic Sclafani (second in 1,600 and 3,200) led the Oxford Hills boys to a sixth-place finish, behind Brunswick and Skowhegan.
The Class B winners both got an early boost from runner-up finishes in the opening 4×800 relay. The Cony girls got individual wins from Tess Towle (high jump) and Gabby Low (javelin), plus plenty of second- and third-place showings.
“We had jumpers, we had throwers, we had sprinters, we had distance runners. Everybody showed up to compete, and we, from the very first events — the (4×800), the girls’ javelin, the girls’ high jump — those are the first three events, we won those events,” Millett said. “And so we set ourselves up really good for a great meet today.”
“Once the morning session was over, and the hurdle races were done, and the 100s and the (4×800) — for us, kicking off the day coming in second in the (4×800) was, I think, really set the tone for our team,” Martin said.
The Leavitt boys finished fourth, thanks to a 4×100 relay win and second-place finishes by Bryce Pelletier (110 hurdles) and Ryan Pratt (racewalk). Enrico Echevarria won the racewalk for Mt. Blue, which placed ninth.
Leavitt placed seventh on the girls’ side, getting a runner-up finish by Nicole Daigle in the 100, to go along with other point-scoring placings. Mt. Blue’s Julia Hatch won the racewalk, helping the Cougars to a 10th-place finish.
Kaplinger won the Class A boys’ Don Matheson Award, given to the most outstanding field performer. Laliberte tied with Skowhegan’s Leah Savage for girls’ Class A award. Waterville’s Sarah Cox and Morse’s William Carrolton won in Class B.
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
Edward Little’s Ella Boucher runs the 300-meter hurdles during a rainy Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference track meet Saturday at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham. (Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal)
Mt. Ararat’s Sara York, left, and Messalonskee’s Charlotte Wentworth battle for second place in the 800 meters behind Brunswick’s Maddie Wayne during a rainy Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference track meet Saturday at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham. (Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal)
Erskine Academy’s Kaylee Porter wins the 800 meters during a rainy Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference track meet Saturday at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham. (Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal)
Skowhegan’s Andrew Ireland, left, Lewiston’s Isiah Leach and Asad Abukar run the 300-meter hurdles during a rainy Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference track meet Saturday at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham. (Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal)
Lewiston’s Noor Shidad runs the 400 meters during a rainy Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference track meet Saturday at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham. (Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal)
Lewiston’s Connor Kaplinger, crosses finish line on anchor leg of the 4×100 relay during a rainy Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference track meet Saturday at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham. (Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal)
Lewiston’s Connor Kaplinger, left, and Skowhegan’s Jon Bell sprint to finish line on anchor leg of 4×100 relay during a rainy Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference track meet Saturday at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham. (Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal)
Edward Little’s Jilian Richardson runs the 3,200-meter run at the KVAC track and field championships Saturday. (Eric Maxim/Brunswick Times Record)Edward Little’s Lindy Hyndman beats out Oxford Hills’ Taylor Haggerty in the 100-meter dash at the KVAC track and field championships Saturday. (Eric Maxim/Brunswick Times Record)Edward Little’s Barrack Abdraba, far right, runs the 110-meter hurdles with, left to right, Lewiston’s Isiah Leach and Edward Little’s Ben Strong and Connor Jackson at the KVAC track and field championships Saturday. Abdraba won the event with a time of 15.91 seconds. (Eric Maxim/Brunswick Times Record)Leavitt’s Stephen Gray lands during the triple jump at the KVAC track and field championships Saturday. (Eric Maxim/Brunswick Times Record)
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