Boys and girls teams representing Caribou, Fort Fairfield, Fort Kent, Greater Houlton Christian Academy, Houlton, Limestone Community School/Maine School of Science and Mathematics, Presque Isle, and Washburn participated in 19 events on a gorgeous spring day.
The Shires and Eagles had very impressive showings against their Aroostook County counterparts, putting up some great team scores and having several kids hit new personal bests.
Mia Hanning and Rylee Warman scored 27.5 and 24 points respectfully. The Shires placed fourth in the girls meet with 57 points.
Hanning started the day off with a third-place finish cruising to a new school record in the 100m with a 13.81 which bested the previous 14.01 set by Natalie Hill just a season ago at the county championships. She followed this up with back-to-back first-place finishes in the 200 and 400 as well as elevating her 4×100 meter team to a third-place finish. The top three places of the 4×100 were decided in less than six tenths of a second. Warman took over with the middle distances running career bests in all three events [800, 1600, 3200] and placing second in each of them.
For the Shires, the girls throwing section has seen an increase in competition amongst themselves with the trio of Hannah Foley, Lexi Bartlett and Olivia White all hovering around the 63-foot mark in discus. Last week Bartlett took the school record from Foley with her throws at Foxcroft, but Foley answered this week with a throw of 64 feet.
“With White coming just inches behind her the record will surely be contested throughout the remainder of the season,” said coach Chris Rines. “This kind of inner team competition is great for them because they get to push one another and not focus so much on what other schools and kids are doing, before you know it they’re climbing the ranks and having fun doing it.”
The boys team saw points come in from more than just the track events as Tim Glatter (12), Damon Reynolds (2), and Nathan Bouchard (4.5) took some places in the throwing events. Glatter’s Javelin throw of 125-feet, 4-inches was good enough for second place and took down the existing school record set in 2014 by Elyjah Crockett of 119-1. It was the best placing the three of them had ever had at any previous meet.
The majority of scoring for the men came from the hard top with the one two sprinting combo of Ethan Fletcher (32.5) and Austin Brown (22.5) lighting up the track. Isaiah Brown (22.5) took over with the 800 and 1600 with two first-place wins. The trio joined forces with Bouchard in the 4×400 meter relay for the win and to cap off a great night of scoring. Fletcher ended his day taking first in each event her participated in.
“The highlight of the day really was our boys 4×400 relay team,” Rines said. “At the end of a long meet, when all other events are wrapped up and hundreds of athletes are surrounding the track cheering on the final competitors. The sun had just set and the lights around the Johnson athletic complex were lit. Four teams raced each other, with Caribou the favorite to take it, and many thought the host Presque Isle would not be far behind.”
Austin Brown got out to the early lead running neck and neck with the other team’s leads, only hundredths of seconds separating them. The handoff to Bouchard set him up nicely to maintain the lead. Caribou’s next runner caught up and passed him, but would not get far as he held them at just a 4-meter gap. The next handoff would go to Isaiah Brown. The long distance specialist showed he’s not afraid to come down to the sprints and not only recaptured the lead, but pulled away from the Vikings.
“The anchor leg came down to the kid who has been getting it done all season long so far. Fletcher could have taken an easy lap for the sure victory, but he had his team on his back and knew that the other schools best runners were coming at him, he never looked back,” Rines said.
The boys completed the 1600 meters in 3:44.40, at the time is was a PVC small school best however the same night a talented Orono team would go 3:37.31.
