DOVER FOXCROFT, Maine — The Houlton Track and Field squad felt a little more complete in its second week of competition as several of last week’s participants were joined by students who were away during the April 2016 vacation.
On Saturday, April 30, 29 student athletes (24 Houlton, 4 GCHA, 1 East Grand) competed in week 2 of the PVC outdoor schedule at Foxcroft Academy where they faced stiff competition from not only the rest of the County, but the PVC at large.
The boys team had a great day on the track lead by some amazing performance from Ethan Fletcher, Isaiah Brown, and Austin Brown. The three put up some impressive times, again lowering the modern school records and breaking into the state and league qualifying realm.
Isaiah Brown lowered his 1600 and 3200 meter times to 4:48.85 and 10:46.43 respectfully while also making his season debut in the 800 with a time of 2:10.58. All three of these times are new school records and his effort in the 1600 earned him an automatic bid to states, while his 800 and 3200 times were good enough for provisional qualifying.
“Those two events are tough for distance runners at the same meet, because they are run so closely together,” coach Chris Rines said. “Only the 200 meter event separates them so many runners opt to do one or the other. This week Isaiah opted for both.”
A mishap early in the meet did not yield results initially for Fletcher’s 100 meter who came in just hundredths of a second over teammate Austin Brown. Photo finishes are taken at the finish line for all races and then used to determine to the nearest 100th of a second places and times, the coach said.
“Ethan and Austin finished in such rapid succession along with other competitors in their race that the team reading the photos missed Ethan and his results went unrecorded,” Rines said. “This error would be fixed later in the meet.”
Austin Brown was back to his usual form after a slow start last week. His 100 meter and high jump performances tie his personal bests from a year ago and he also made his first career start in the 400, running a 57.24.
On the girls side, Mia Hanning and Rylee Warman lit up the track racking up several points for Houlton. Warman continued to trim her 1600 meter time down while opting to race in the 800 this meet. Her times of 6:00.83 and 2:49.5 carried her to two first place finishes in each event. Hanning strung together some nice places in the 100, 200, and 400 as well coming in 4th, 5th, and 2nd, respectfully.
Greater Houlton Christian Academy had some nice performances in both the girls and boys meets, coach Rines said. The Eagles had two boys and two girls representing them.
“Cole Winslow has really taken to form with his hurdle work and is showing promise with the distance events as well,” Rines said. “Teammate Wesley Ganglfinger was able to translate his cross country experience to the hard top and put up some nice times in his first career track and field meet. Jillian Ross bested her discus throw from a week ago and freshman Raveen Angotti made some very promising first steps in her throwing resume.”
East Grand’s Trevor Fronczak may have taken a step back in his 1600 meter time from a week ago, but he was still able to post a 5:21.02 good enough for a 6th place to earn EG a single point.
“His jumping is coming along nicely and in just a week’s time he has been able to add quite a few feet to his long jump,” Rines said. “His jump of 16 feet tied for 5th place and added some more points to the East Grand score sheet.”
