BREWER — When Anna Reny crossed the finish line of the 300-meter hurdles at the Class B state track and field championship Saturday, she was pretty sure she had set a Cony High School record. Turns out, Reny did a little better than that.
With her time of 45.12 seconds, Reny set the Class B girls 300 hurdle record.
“Oh, my gosh. I had no idea,” Reny said. “When they said I got the state record, I was just dumbfounded.”
Greely’s Marin Provencher, front, embraces Mt. Blue’s Kahryn Cullenberg after the 3,200-meter run in the Class B track and field championship meet Saturday in Brewer. Cullenberg won the race in 11:29.09. Kennebec Journal photo by Joe Phelan
Reny’s effort helped the Cony girls to third place with 59 points. The Brewer girls won the title with 84 points, while York placed second with 70.
The York boys used their depth to win the championship with 63.33 points, despite not having an individual winner. Greely placed second (53 points) and Mt. Desert Island followed in third (40).
Reny, who also placed second in the 200, was never challenged in the 300 hurdles, pulling away to beat second-place Hayley Smith of York (46.99) by almost 2 seconds.
“I was just trying to get through the finish line and get through it,” Reny said of the 300 hurdles.
Mt. Blue’s Kahryn Cullenberg took the 3,200 title with a time of 11:29.09. A newcomer to the 3,200 this season, Cullenberg was seeded fourth, 18 seconds behind top seed Carolyn Todd of Greely. Cullenberg said her plan was to try to simply close the gap between herself and the top three runners.
“I just started it this year, and it’s been cool because I found this event uses more strategy. You have so much more time to think about what you’re going to do. For me, I just really like playing mental games. I like having time to think during the race,” Cullenberg, who placed third in the 1,600 earlier in the day, said. “The 1,600 was a crazy race, because I feel like everybody was trying to do the exact same thing. I didn’t feel like I held back in the 16.”
Greely’s Marin Provencher won a tight girls 1,600 with a time of 5:19.27. The race went out at a conservative pace, Provencher said. A tight pack of runners traded the lead over the first 1,200 meters before Provencher finally pulled away over the final lap.
“I was just trying to stay near the top of the pack. I was just trying to stay calm during the race, and I think I did a pretty job doing that,” Provencher said. “Toward the end, I felt like I could go. The pace was being pushed a little bit, so I decided to take it and go.”
Winslow’s Carly Warn kept the triple jump state championship in the family. Warn’s older brother, Jake, won three triple jump titles for the Black Raiders. Saturday, Warn, a sophomore, won her first triple jump crown with a jump of 34 feet, 6.75 inches. Warn’s best jump was her first, she said.
“I was nice and fresh. I had the 200 right after, so I knew I needed to have fresh legs to do my best,” Warn said.
Erskine’s Jack Jowett knew he had the javelin championship sewn up before his final throw, as no competitor had bested his earlier throw of 159 feet. With that in mind, Jowett cut loose on his final throw, going 167-05 to increase his margin of victory.
“I had one more throw and I figured, why not go out with a bang?” Jowett said. “It was a very solid ending to a good state meet. It was a nice way to end the whole event.”
Old Town’s Wayne Dorr took the boys 100 title, holding off a late-charging Taylor Bielecki to win in 11.57. Dorr and Bielecki entered the day as co-favorites. In the final, Dorr got out of the blocks faster, but Bielecki came on strong over the final 50 meters, placing second in 11.60.
Cony’s Caleb Richardson competes in the 800-meter run during the Class B track and field championship meet Saturday in Brewer. Kennebec Journal photo by Joe Phelan
“I could feel him right next to me. I just barely got him,” Dorr said.
Other records fell along with Reny’s effort in the 300 hurdles.
Zachary Beaton of Hermon set a new mark with his 14.53 in the boys 110 hurdles preliminary round. Beaton also won the 300 hurdle title.
Old Town’s Izabelle Trefts set a record in the girls 1,600 racewalk, with a time of 7:26.07, taking first place by close to a minute and a half over Mt. Blue’s Julia Hatch, the defending champion. Leavitt’s Molly Sirois came in third, less than two seconds behind Hatch.
Aaliyah Trask led a solid showing for the Leavitt girls sprinters, placing third in the 200, fourth in the 100 and helping the Hornets place fifth in the 4×400 relay. Also in that relay were Ava Petrin, Margon Kenyon and Tamra Benson.
Leavitt’s 4×800 relay team of Kenyon, Jaidyn Negley, Petrin and Benson placed fourth. Petrin also took seventh in the 100-meter dash.
Poland’s Ellen Marquis-Boutin was fifth in the 100 and seventh in the 200. Gray-New Gloucester’s Madison Post, a past state champ in the sprints, came in seventh in the 100.
Gray-New Gloucester senior Erica Schlichting came in third in the 800, while her teammates Megan Reynolds and Zoe Barnes achieved fourth-place finishes in the javelin and discus, respectively. Barnes also was sixth in the shot put.
Mat Otte of Mt. Blue had the highest boys area finish, taking fourth in the 1,600 race walk. Teammate Preston Ross was fifth in the 110-meter hurdles (and eighth in the 300 hurdles, and Ethan McIntosh was sixth in the 400.
Gray-New Gloucester’s Jacob MacCallum earned points in the discus (fifth place) and 110 hurdles (sixth).
Leavitt’s Stephen Gray took sixth in the triple jump.
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