Indoor Track
Wildcats indoor track competes at Bowdoin
By Kevin Higgins
YORK - On Saturday, Dec. 16, the York Indoor Track team competed at the annual Bowdoin College invitational relay meet.Boys and girls both placed seventh in the 14-team meet, scoring 36 and 29 points, respectively.
York recorded three relay wins for the day. Both the boys' and the girls' high jump relays won, as well as the boys' throwers relay.
Regan Cleminson won the girls' high jump with a leap of 5 feet. Her fellow relay members Molly Carl and Kaitlin Carson backed her up with jumps of 4 feet, 8 inches and 4 feet, 6 inches, respectively. Their combined height of 14 feet, 2 inches easily cleared second place by seven inches.
The calculation of field event relay distance is really quite simple. Each team enters three members for a relay, who then compete in the event as normal. Once all the marks are taken, the heights or distances are added up to arrive at the relay score.
Cam Dillon placed third and led the boys' high jump team with a jump of 5 feet, 6 inches. The senior currently holds the school record at 5 feet, 11 inches. Pat Graham placed sixth with a leap of 5 feet, 4 inches. Dave Cannata jumped 5 feet, 1 inch, to help the team win by 5 inches.
The throwers relay is a 4-by-100-foot relay with its members drawn from the school's throwing squad. Cory Borgel, Cannata, Andrew Hirst and Jake Young combined to smash the competition by over a second and set a new school record.
The long jump and triple jump teams were also successful. The boys' triple jump placed second overall, paced by a second-place leap from Andrew Potter. Cannata placed seventh, and senior Justin Gallant placed 16th. Potter also led the third-place long jump squad of Gallant and Mark Vogel.
The girls' long jump team of Carl, Chelsea Tewell and Jess Cassotis placed fourth. Cleminson, Kirsten Dean and Carson placed fifth in the triple jump.
Sibley Blum was York's lone pole-vaulter for the day. She tied for first with a vault of 9 feet, which was strong enough for fifth place overall as a relay.
One other boys' relay team placed in the 4-by-55 shuttle hurdles. This relay is back and forth. One runner runs down the straight of way, another comes back, a third runs back down and the fourth returns back to the start, each one going over hurdles the entire time. The Wildcat boys placed fifth. Robert Cook, Gallant, Sam Rasche and Vogel each ran.
The girls' team featured a wide variety of other scores. The sprint medley team placed third. The distances for a medley vary from leg to leg of the relay. Lacey Cartier opened the relay for York with a 400. She handed off to Jenna Hosmer, who ran a 200. Katie Rasche and Chelsea Tewell ran third and fourth, respectively, each completing a 300.
The girls' featured another strong sprint relay in the 4-by-200. Cartier, Kristina Clements, Emily Marshall and Tewell placed fifth.
The Lady Wildcats throwers had a strong day as well. Kiera Pressey, Hillary Christopher and Emma Pressey placed sixth in the shot-put relay. They joined with Lindsay Putnam for the throwers' relay, placing fifth.
Only about a third of the York team competed at the Bowdoin Invitational. In order to keep the meet flowing smoothly, York coaches decided to bring only 40 athletes, entering just one relay team in each event. The remaining 80 or so athletes will have to wait to compete until the regular season begins on Friday, Jan. 5, at the University of Southern Maine.
