On February 20th, in an entertaining day-long spectacle of state records and personal bests, 28 schools from all across Maine hauled their best athletes over to Lewiston for the Class B State Championships. Yarmouth was by no means a favorite to win, largely because our team shrunk considerably as the graduation of last year’s seniors left a sizable dent in our roster. Although we didn’t have the same depth in our ranks as last year, that doesn’t mean we were lacking in incredible individual performances.
On the girl's side, Emma Butsch achieved a personal best of 32 feet 8.75 inches in the shot put to take third in a tie, qualifying for the New England Championships in the process. The girl's 4x200 meter relay team, consisting of Bryn Cain, Tessa Dougherty, Taylor Oranellas, and Abby Noble, took 6th place in a time of 1:57.99 even after getting tripped up when another team got in the way of a handoff. Tessa, Abby, and Taylor each participated in individual events as well; Tessa in the high jump, Taylor in the 400 meter dash, and Abby in the 55 meter dash and 200 meter dash. Taylor finished her season by improving on her previous personal record by over a second to take 7th place in the 400 meter dash. Abby came just 0.01 seconds shy of a personal best in the 55 meter dash but still took home 5th place. She set a new personal best of 28.09 seconds in the 200 meter dash which earned her a 9th place finish. The girls 4x800 team consisting of Lilah Connor, Eleanor Ting, Morgan Goodrich and Eliza Grimnes also killed it, running a time of 12:05 even though it was Eliza’s first race back from sickness. After all was said and done, the girls team achieved an overall placement of 14th out of 28 teams, an impressive feat given the size of many of the teams they faced.
Courtesy of Indoor Track
After both already having a great season, Harry Dougherty and Wes Merrill managed to break their previous personal records in the 55 meter dash with Harry taking 2nd place and Wes taking 7th. They also both achieved new personal bests in the 200 meter dash against a highly competitive field; Harry in 4th place and Wes in 6th. Harry even broke his previous school record in the 55 meter dash with a time of 6.68 seconds which qualified him for the New England Championships. Additionally, Harry jumped 19 feet and 3.75 inches to take 8th in the long jump. Colby Ting continued his streak of consistent improvement in the pole vault this season, clearing a height of 11 feet and 6 inches for 3rd place. Colby, along with Wes, Sam Lowenstein and Steven Jiang ran Yarmouth’s fastest 4x200 of the season in a time of 1:40 for 6th place. Yarmouth almost didn’t run a boys 4x800 because we couldn’t find a 4th runner to do it, but at quite literally the last minute before leaving for Lewiston, Caleb Ferrell stepped in to run his first-ever distance race. He along with Isaac Pendleton, Josh Leinwand and myself ran a respectable race considering the circumstances and also considering that both Isaac and I were coming off a sickness. Later on in the day, Josh also participated in the individual 800 meters, running a time of 2:15 for 14th place in one of the more competitive events of the day. The boys' team finished the meet in 8th place to end a fantastic season.
Courtesy of Indoor Track Sara McKenzie // Clipper Chronicle