FARMINGTON — Stronger competition raised Jillian Schmelzer’s game at Saturday’s Class C track and field championships, and Schmelzer raised the bar for herself and others to come after her.
The Winthrop junior won the girls 100- and 400-meter state titles, set school records in three events and tied a state record in one at Mt. Blue High School.
Schmelzer equaled the 15-year-old state record in the 400 at 58.47 seconds, edging Maranacook’s Molly McGrail in Saturday’s race by 0.32 of a second.
“My own record before that was 59.0, and I knew today there was going to be some tough competition,” Schmelzer said. “Molly McGrail is a great runner and she was on my tail and she really pushes me to chase my own record. I’m happy to have that experience.”
Schmelzer won the 100 in 12.50 seconds to beat Penquis’ Cymeria Robshaw (12.64). Schmelzer set her third school mark in the 200 (26.28) when she was runner-up to defending champion Camille Kohtala (26.13).
Her performance helped lift Winthrop to fourth in the team standings. Orono (112 points), which had a string of six consecutive state titles snapped by Maranacook last year, easily reclaimed the crown, followed by Maranacook (67), Caribou (57), Winthrop (52) and Wells (46).
On the boys side, Sacopee Valley (69) won its first state title since 2010 by holding off Hall-Dale (56.75). Orono (51.75), Mt. Abram (50) and Caribou (47) rounded out the top five.
“This is an incredible team in that they really improve every week of the season, and that’s really tough to do in track,” Sacopee Valley coach Ben Murphy said. “You want to be peaking at the end, and we really were. Every single guy we brought who was supposed to score points either scored as much or more than they were supposed to. We just had an unbelievable day. The pole vault was amazing.”
Senior Aidan Foley led Sacopee with gold in the pole vault (11-06) and as the anchor on the Hawks’ winning 4×100-meter relay team.
Foley switched the pole he was using to match his personal best in the vault and plans to continue using it next week at New England championships, though he isn’t sure he’ll be able to hold off runner-up and teammate Sean Wedgewood (11-06).
“He’s been vaulting for three weeks and he had the same height,” Foley said of Wedgewood. “I taught him how to vault three weeks ago and I created a monster.”
“After I cleared 5-08 in the high jump, Aidan said, ‘Dude, you should come vault,” said Wedgewood, a junior. “I was like, ‘Sure, I’ll try it.’ I just fell in love with it.”
Jon Jordan led the Mt. Abram into the top five by winning the 400 title (53.19 seconds), passing Boothbay’s Blake Erhard (53.43) in the final 20 meters.
At last week’s Mountain Valley Conference championships, Jordan kept pace with Erhard before pulling away late to win by more than one second.
“This time,” Jordan said, “he was a good 25 meters ahead of me, which has never really happened. So I really had to push and start running quicker than I usually do. Towards the last 50 meters, I started feeling like I could reel him in.”
Cayden Spencer-Thompson of Mattanawcook Academy was the star of the meet, setting new state records in the boys triple jump (48-03.75), long jump (23-02.75) and high jump (6-11).
Other boys winners were: Hall-Dale’s Zander Bourne (1,600 race walk), Dirigo’s Cam Kidder (300 hurdles), Bucksport’s Carter Tolmasoff (100 and 200), Wells’ Griffin Allaire (1,600 and 3,200) and Maranacook’s Ryan Worster (discus and shot put).
Kidder, a senior, had to rally to finish in 42.40 and defeat Orono’s Niklas Dittmar (42.72).
“I came around the second corner and I was behind by quite a bit,” Kidder said. “So I pulled in and pushed myself and told myself I wasn’t going to lose to him and kind of gassed it at the end.”
Other winners on the girls side included Kohtala (long jump and 200), Traip Academy’s Sophie Santamaria (100 hurdles) and Monmouth Academy’s Libby Clement (300 hurdles).
Clement, a junior, set a new personal best with her winning time of 48.24, to defeat Caribou’s Willow Whitten (49.56).
“It was .05 off the school record, which I’ve been trying to get since freshman year,” said Clement, who finished second to Santamaria in the 100 hurdles. “I was really nervous. It’s weird going against (competition) I never see in any other race. I just wanted to come out fast. My coach (Monmouth assistant coach Norm Thombs) told me to the first three hurdles, I’ve got to come out fast.”
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