LEWISTON — The Brunswick girls entered Saturday’s KVAC Large School track and field championships as heavy favorites on paper.
The Dragons, though, knew that Edward Little was going to put up a fight. And the Red Eddies did, but not enough to overcome Brunswick.
The Dragons won their first girls conference title since 2006, racking up 168 points while Edward Little was second with 152.333.
Brunswick also claimed the boys championship, the school’s first in more than 20 years, according to coach Dan Dearing.
“We knew it was going to be an extremely tough fight,” Brunswick girls coach Heather Hoisington said. “… We knew EL would put up a pretty good fight.”
Edward Little entered the meet at Lewiston High School having won six consecutive conference championships. Brunswick sophomore Lisi Palmer said that knowing the Red Eddies were going to put up a challenge was motivating, not nerve-wracking.
“I think EL’s competitiveness really helped us there,” Palmer said.
Palmer scored a lot of points for the Dragons. She won the high jump with a height of 5 feet, 2 inches.
“I love high jump. It’s like a soothing sport to me,” Palmer said. “Like, it relaxes me, it gets me going for the meet. EL, in that, also competes there.”
Edward Little senior Breya Whitman (4-8) was the runner-up in the high jump. Leilani Mitchell, as she did throughout the meet, also earned points in the high jump for the Red Eddies with a sixth-place finish.
Hoisington said she anticipated that Edward Little was going to be particularly prolific in the horizontal jumps.
“Especially in triple jump, they were going to be able to pretty much sweep that event,” she said.
That’s only a slight exaggeration. The Red Eddies had six of the nine finalists in the triple jump finals. That included the top four finishers, highlighted by Saphryn Humason-Fulgham, who set a new meet record with a jump of 37 feet, 10 inches.
“I was not expecting that at all,” Humason-Fulgham said. “I’m just ecstatic. I don’t even have words to explain that.”
The mark also surpasses Humason-Fulgham’s previous personal record by more than a foot.
“Something about the KVAC atmosphere always pushes me to do my best,” Humason-Fulgham said.
Layla Facchiano was second in the triple jump, followed by Lillyann Watkins and Whitman.
The triple jump title is Humason-Fulgham’s first, but earlier in the day, she won her third consecutive KVAC long jump championship with a 17-3. Facchiano again placed second, and Whitman was eighth for another Edward Little point.
To counter the Red Eddies’ jump dominance, Hoisington said Brunswick needed to do well in the running events.
Palmer also placed second in the 200-meter dash and third in the 100 and 400. In the latter two events, she finished behind teammate Kayla Monahan, another sophomore, who won the 400 and placed second in the 100.
Isabel Dauphinais took fourth in the 100 and Maddie Chaput eighth for Brunswick. In the 200, Dauphinias placed fourth and Monahan sixth.
“In the past years, our sprints have not been as strong as they are, and with such a young team, it’s so great to see,” Hoisington said.
Monahan added a third-place showing in the 100-meter finals.
Brunswick also gained titles in the 800, by Maeve Woodruff, and in the 4×400-meter relay.
In the sprints and the hurdles, Monahan, Palmer and everyone else finished behind Lewiston’s Makenna Drouin, who won the 100 and 200 dashes and the 100 and 300 hurdles — the third consecutive year the junior has swept all four events.
“I just try to race myself against the times,” Drouin said.
After the meet, Drouin was named the Don Berry girls track athlete of the meet. Mt. Ararat’s Aidan Greenleaf won the boys award.
Lewiston’s Ryker Paradis and Mt. Ararat’s Aubrey Pelletier were selected as the Don Matheson boys and girls field athletes of the meet.
The Camden Hills girls were third in the team competition with 109.5 points. Mt. Ararat took third, Lewiston fifth, Oxford Hills sixth, Skowhegan seventh and Messalonskee eighth.
Pelletier was second in the shot put and the discus for Mt. Ararat. The Eagles also took first and second in the pole vault, as Lydia White won the championship and Carly Satterfield was the runner-up.
Mitchell won two events for Edward Little, the discus (96-3) and the 1,600-meter race walk. She also placed third in the 3,200.
Katharine Garcia won the 3,200, placed fifth in the 1,600 run, and ran a leg of the Red Eddies’ championship 4×800 relay, along with Maddie Ranger, Violet Vincent and Micah Joler.
“We almost did it. I don’t think that there was anywhere we could pick up more points,” Edward Little coach Rebecca Hefty said. “It was a lot. Triple jump helped, the long jump helped. … Leilani stepped up to the plate, Katharine, Violet … the entire girls team pulled through.”
Camden Hills’ Siena Scordino won the 1,600.
Oxford Hills had a pair of winners. Sierra Carson opened the meet by taking first in the javelin, and Ella Pelletier, who seemed frustrated with her javelin performance, went on to win the shot put.
The Vikings had three top fives in both events. Molly Corbett was second and Pelletier fifth in the javelin. Maddy Stack placed third in the shot put and Carson was fifth. Kenzie Grenier added a third-place showing in the discus, while Pelletier took seventh.
Also for the Vikings, Ashley Richardson came in third in the 200, and Nellie Gilbert, Carson, Corbet and Richardson placed third in the 4×100 relay.
For the Lewiston girls, Audrey Bilodeau had three top-fives: fourth in the 100 and 400 and fifth in the long jump. Addison Bilodeau took fourth in the 800, and Jenni Flynn placed sixth in the 100, seventh in the long jump and eighth in the 200.
‘SACRIFICE FOR THE TEAM’
Brunswick’s boys team finished with 185 points. Mt. Ararat was second with 154.5 and Lewiston came in third with 125.5 points. Edward Little was fourth, then Skowhegan, Oxford Hills, Messalonskee and Camden Hills.
Justin Corporon paced the Dragons with wins in the 100 and 200.
Midway through the 100, Corporon sprinted ahead of the pack. He credited improved technique.
“So I haven’t been lifting my knees in my races,” Corporon said. “Halfway through, I started lifting my knees a little more. I started going so much faster.”
Miles Logan added a win in the 800 for Brunswick.
“I was going for the win there, not for time,” Logan said.
He also ran the 1,600 (placing fourth), 3,200 (sixth) and a leg of Brunswick’s second-place 4×400 relay. He typically doesn’t run all four distance events, but coach Dan Dearing said that big meets like the KVAC championships require the athletes to push beyond their comfort levels.
“This is not a day for your time, it’s a day to sacrifice for your team. And they really did that,” Dearing said.
“First time this year I’ve done it. It’s pretty hot, so I’m kind of drained, but I feel pretty good,” Logan said. “Sacrifice for the team, get as many points as possible, try to win as a team, and then go back next week and focus on my individual event.”
The athletes who qualify will compete in the Class A state championships Saturday at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham.
The Dragons had two other wins: Thomas McCormack in the pole vault, and the 4×800 relay.
Skowhegan’s Billy Albertson set a new meet record in the long jump, with a distance of 22-8. He also won the boys triple jump with a personal-record 45-6.
“I’ve only ever gone over 45 in one other meet, but today, I got a nice tail wind, nice little pits, so it’s just a great time to PR.”
Albertson also was the runner-up in the 100 and took third in the 200.
Greenleaf won the 400 for Mt. Ararat and placed second in the 200 and third in the 100. He also was part of the first-place 4×400 relay. Parker Libby added a win in the 1,600 run for the Eagles, while Benjamin Therriault won the high jump and Ian Britt finished first in the race walk.
Paradis excelled in the throws for Lewiston. He won the shot put and the javelin, and placed second to Camden Hills’ Ryan Glaser in the discus.
After he won the javelin, Paradis spent a few minutes working on his technique and a few more talking to his coach about the things he thinks he can improve.
The sophomore has already made strides in the past year, when he finished seventh in the javelin at the KVAC meet.
“Awesome. Big improvement from last year, for sure,” Paradis said, crediting “lots of practice with my coach.”
The Blue Devils also took first in the 4×100 relay, which was run by Josue Luis, Ahmed Abdow, Ritangel Silva and Cameron Harris. Feysal Abdirahaman and Adam Bilodeau earned second-place finishes in the 1,600 and 3,200, respectively.
Tudum Monday was a two-time champ for Edward Little, taking first in the 110 and 300 hurdles. Dru Hyndman placed second in the long jump with a school record 22-4, which also would be a meet record if not for Albertson’s 22-8.
“I’ve been chasing 22, in general, for a long time,” Hyndman said.
The Edward Little boys team has lacked depth all year, so Hefty was particularly proud of a few athletes who exceeded expectations.
“There’s two, and one is Elijah Morgan, he’s a senior, and then also Gavin Therriault. Two huge kids that — you know, when you have a kid that wins every single time, you kind of look at that kid, but, really, there’s also a lot more depth that goes with them,” Hefty said. “Elijah stepped up to the plate. He placed in the 300, he placed in the 400, he brought us to the win in the 4×100, he crushed in the 400. You can’t ask for anything else, you know, as a senior.”
Morgan placed third in the 400 and eighth in the 200. He and Therriault each ran a leg of the runner-up 4×100 and the fourth-place 4×400 relays.
Therriault finished second to Paradis in the javelin and took third in the long jump.
“Gavin was messing around last Friday in the long jump, he jumped a lifetime best. He went 4×100, he led off the 4×400, he got second in the jav and he placed in the long jump,” Hefty said. “So, some great kids. …
“The boys, zero depth. One kid injured and we’re out. So fourth place? We’ll take it.”
Hefty also praised senior Owen Vincent taking on a pair of difficult distance runs as well as the 4×400 and 4×400 relays.
After Paradis and Therriault in the javelin came three Oxford Hills throwers. Tanner Bickford was third, less than a foot short of Therriault, then Lincoln Merrill and Jake Carson.
Camden Colby earn a third place for the Vikings in the race walk, and Cody Roy took fourth in the boys pole vault.
Messalonskee’s Pierce Coughlin won the 3,200 run.
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