PI’s Nelson and FF’s Daigle
solid at Caribou track meet
CARIBOU, Maine — Eileen Patton spearheaded the Viking girls’ track victory Saturday by winning all four of her events.
Patton won the 100-meter hurdles, the 300-meter hurdles and the javelin outright and tied for the victory in the pole vault to score 39 of her team’s 212 points and lift Caribou past eight other teams.
The Viking boys also came out on top by tallying 169 points in the meet that included all the Aroostook County teams along with Penobscot Valley Conference squads Mattanawcook of Lincoln, Penquis of Milo and Sumner of East Sullivan.
Patton took the 100 hurdles in 17.85 seconds, beating teammate JoJo Fields by .6 seconds and six other competitors. She went up against Maria Espinosa, also of Caribou, in the 300 hurdles and had a time of 53.1 seconds, compared to 54.8 for Espinosa.
Her javelin throw of 101 feet, 8 inches was 5 feet, 7 inches longer than the runner-up, PI’s Maddie Wing. In the pole vault, she eclipsed 7 feet to tie with Fort Fairfield’s Marissa Brouette for top honors.
Two athletes captured first place in a pair of events each — Regan Nelson of PI in the shot put (33 feet, 11-1/2 inches) and the discus (101 feet) and Jordan Durant of Penquis in the long jump (14 feet, 8 inches) and the triple jump (30 feet, 8 inches).
Other event winners were Fields in the 100-meter dash (13.99 seconds), Amelia Hanning of Houlton in the 200 (30.03 seconds), Tori Koch of PI in the 400 (1:04.33), Rylee Warman of Houlton in the 800 (2:37.14), Alexis Rodriguez of Caribou in the 1,600 (5:52.5), Allison Johnson of LCS/MSSM in the 3,200 (13:09.9), Kelsey Kneeland of Mattanawcook in the high jump (5 feet) and Emma Belyea of Caribou in the racewalk (9:34.4).
Caribou swept all three relays, winning the 4×100 behind Sheridan Blackstone, Espinosa, Meagan Dube and Fields in 55.75 seconds; the 4×400, with a foursome including Willow Whitten, Dube, Rodriguez and Blackstone, in 4:40.82; and the 4×800, thanks to the performance of Madeline Gudde, Sam Fortin, Blackstone and Ashley Violette, in 11:51.53.
In the boys’ meet, Cayden Spencer-Thompson of Mattanawcook was able to pick up three individual wins, while Jonah Daigle of Fort Fairfield and Isaiah Brown and Ethan Fletcher, both of Houlton, claimed two each.
Spencer-Thompson prevailed in all three jumping competitions, winning the high jump at 6 feet, the long jump at 20 feet, 9 inches and the triple jump at 42 feet, 5 inches.
Daigle was first in both of the hurdling events, winning the 110 distance in 16.97 seconds and the 300 in 44.79, upending teammate Colin Goshorn in both.
Brown was the king of the distance running competitions, winning the 1,600 in 4:54.88, by over 10 seconds over runner-up Tsion MacLeod of Caribou, and also taking the 3,200 in 10:32.51, by 28.4 seconds over runner-up Evan Desmond of Caribou.
Fletcher won the 200-meter dash in 24.85 seconds, nipping PI’s Trace Cyr at the finish by .12 seconds, and Fletcher also took the 400 in 53.65 seconds, by 1.65 over Washburn’s Devon Maynard.
Also taking first place were Chan Villatora of PI in the 100 (12.03 seconds), Elijah Verhoff of Caribou in the 800 (2:08.93), Goshorn in the pole vault (10 feet), Nic Sleeper of Caribou in the shot put (37 feet, 8-1/2 inches), Brandon Manter of Caribou in the discus (111 feet, 10 inches), Lance McKenney of Fort Fairfield in the javelin (137 feet, 11 inches) and Desmond in the racewalk (7:47.95).
Presque Isle’s 4×100 relay team of Villatora, Cyr, Parker Lambert and Kyler Caron prevailed in 48.17 seconds. Caribou took first in the other two, taking the 4×400 in 3:54.21 and the 4×800 in 10:06.58. Making up the 4×400 team were Richard Newland, Evan Michaud, Cory Jandreau and Caleb Trombley, while Gabe Massey, Aaron Macek, MacLeod and Calvin Mokler were members of the 4×800 team.
The Aroostook League individual championships, named for Howard Lello and Emery Plourde, will be up for grabs along with team titles at Thursday’s County Meet in Caribou, which begins at 3:30 p.m.
