Outdoor Track
Outdoor Track rolls on
By Kevin Higgins
L-R; Lauren Blackburn and Liana Grieg in 300m Hurdles.
Mickey Rose and Kevin Higgins lead the back in the 800m run. Following them are (L-R) Nick McMahon, Luke Graziano, Carl Ekholm, Nate Hirst and Matt Wagner.
Knowing the wet forecast for the meet, several York athletes parked their cars at the finish line, right next to the box truck, set up tents, and tailgated the meet. Here they had the perfect vantage point to cheer on their teammates as the gun went off and as they leaned across the finish line.
As part of their powerful showing, the boys team won all events, save one. Gabe Zinck led the team with fifteen points and three wins, the 110 hurdles, 300 hurdles, and long jump. Jason Means won the 200 and 400. Mickey Rose won the 800 and 1600. Means and Rose were both on the winning 4x400 as well.
On the girls side, Lacey Cartier won the 800 and the 1600, and was on the winning 4x400 relay. Chelsea Tewell won the 100 and 200, and was on the winning 4x100 relay.
York started the meet off with two phenomenal performances in the race walk. Tom Ciampa and Emily Goering won for the boys and girls, and each set the facility record. Goering is the first York girl to break nine minutes in the race walk.
More facility records fell for York athletes as the meet progressed. Sibley Blum set the girls pole vault record. Alex Ciccolini-Foley tied the 100 dash record held by Rob Berry.
York added two more athletes to its long list of state qualifiers. Aly Sweet qualified in the shot put. Annie Boardman qualified in the two mile. York now boasts 34 athletes qualified for the state meet, with 64 entries. That is more athletes than many other teams in the state have on their whole team.
Once again, York's relay teams shone through. Every relay was won by a York team. The boys 4x800, of Nate Hirst, Nat Freeman, Matt Wagner, and James Joyce ran uncontested. Winona Hapgood, Alyssa Hayward, Kylie Vallee, and Alana Joyce were victorious over Poland by a wide margin.
Sam Ramus, Ciccolini-Foley, Jon King, and Zach Prugar won the boys 4x100 relay with a very sizeable lead. In the girls race, Danielle Clements, Kelsey Greenier, Molly Carl, and Tewell duked it out with Greely the whole race, but Tewell leaned at the finish line for the win.
At the end of the meet the all the fans lined the edge of the track to cheer on the 4x400 relay teams in the last of event of the day and the wall of screaming fans infused the runners with the speed needed to get that last win. The boys team of Means, Rose, Ramus, and Nate Green listened to the crowd and won. Lacey Cartier, Liana Grieg, Lauren Blackburn, and Morgan Taylor did the same, both teams with a substantial lead.
The real competition came between the York boys' "B" team and the Greely "A" team. Kevin Higgins, Nick McMahon, and Mark Vogel dueled with the Greely runners the whole race. Prugar was given a slight deficit going into the anchor leg, which he reduced to nil on the final corner. Neck and neck, the Greely runner eked out the victory with a lean at the line.
York's depth secured the victory once again. Girls team scorers include Hailey Blackburn (400, 800), Lauren Blackburn (100 hurdles, 300 hurdles), Colleen Buckless (discuss), Hana Carey (400), Carl (800), Michelle Carson (high jump, triple jump), Clements (100, 200), Regan Cleminson (high jump), Kristen Gearin (race walk), Grieg (100 hurdles, 300 hurdles, long jump), Casey Hoatson (long jump, triple jump), Jenna Hosmer (100), Alana Joyce (2 mile), Meghan McCrory (100 hurdles), Jillian Means (pole vault), Brooke Simpson (race walk), and Taylor (200, 400, triple jump).
Boys scorers include Brendon Boston (pole vault, high jump), Dave Canatta (triple jump), Brandon Cross (shot put, discuss), Brian Farrell (race walk), Nate Green (2 mile, high jump), Higgins (800), Andrew Hirst (shot put, javelin), Matt Hosmer (mile, 2 mile), James Joyce (400), King (200), Dan MacGlashing (javelin), Matt Maertens (high jump, long jump), Nick McMahon (800, mile), Josh Moulton (discus, shot put), Robert Piazza (110 hurdles, 300 hurdles), Andrew Potter (triple jump), Prugar (100), Chris Rhodes (2 mile), and Mark Vogel (300 hurdles).
The drenching weekend conditions forced the meet at Winacunnet, scheduled for last Saturday, to be cancelled. The next scheduled time the Wildcats will run is this Friday at Wells.
