Track
Indoor track outpaces the competition again
By Kevin Higgins
TEAM SPIRIT. The York High School Wildcats indoor track teams continue to dominate over the competition, with impressive wins in back-to-back meets in the past two weeks. Pictured are Jessica Cassotis, Ryan Means, Nick McMahon and Katie Rasche showing their team spirit as they form the word "York" at last week's meet, and Molly Carl racing in the 3,200-meter relay.
Photos by Brian Farley
YORK - The Wildcats indoor track teams emerged first from their second meet of the season on Friday, Jan. 12.
The competition remained the same as the prior week, with the addition of Cape Elizabeth.
The boys' team scored 160 points, 39.5 ahead of second-place Cape and the girls racked up a whopping 290.5 points - 178.5 more points than Cape.
Once again, the Wildcat jumpers, hurdlers and throwers scored a whole lot of points, nearly sweeping several events.
The junior girls' shot-put crew of Kiera Pressey, Lauren Stein, Hillary Christopher, Michelle Gearin and Katie McKenna placed second through sixth, respectively. In the senior girls' shot-put, Lindsay Warner won, closely followed by teammates Alison Bailey, Emma Pressey and Meghan McCrory, in second, third and fifth place.
In the boys' shot-put, Andrew Hirst placed second in the senior division.
In the junior boys' high jump, Cory Gallant, Patrick Seaward and Jayce Insko placed second, third and fourth. In the senior division, Cam Dillon won with a leap of 5 feet, 6 inches. Pat Graham, Dave Cannata and Robert Cook placed third, fifth and sixth.
In the girls' high jump, Molly Carl led the junior girls in second placed, closely followed by Kaitlin Carson, Kirsten Dean and Kaitlyn Dow. For the senior girls, Regan Cleminson placed second and Jess Cassotis placed fifth.
Chelsea Tewell and Cleminson placed first and second in the girls' triple jump, separated by just two inches. Kelsey St. Germain, Kirsten Dean and Emily Marshall placed fourth through sixth.
In the boys' triple jump, Andrew Potter placed second and Pat Graham and Justin Gallant took fourth and fifth place.
York's hurdlers continued to dominate the competition. The junior girls' squad of Tewell, Dean, Stephanie Lomasney, Jillian Means and St. Germain swept first through fifth place, respectively. Katie Rasche, Cassotis and Cleminson placed second, fourth and sixth in the senior girls' hurdles.
Cory Gallant and Anthony Molino placed fourth and fifth in the junior boys' hurdles. Mark Vogel, Justin Gallant and Cook placed second, fourth and fifth in the senior boys' race.
These statistics may make the York indoor track teams seem oriented in the jumps and throws, but teams capable of scoring as many points as the Wildcats do also feature strong sprinters and distance runners as well. The boys' and girls' miles were easily the most exciting individual races of the night.
In the girls' mile, Annie Boardman ran with a Cape girl the entire race. In the final lap, she put on a burst of speed to win the race by five seconds. Kylie Vallee was not far behind in fourth place.
In the boys' race, Nick McMahon and Kevin Higgins jumped to the front of the pack at the gun. The two maintained this position the entire race. The duo finished one-two in 4 minutes, 58 seconds - a mere seven hundredths of a second apart. The real feat was not in winning, though, but in breaking the five-minute barrier. This mark is very elusive, but once they break it, most runners find it easy to do again and again. Ryan Means placed sixth with a time of 5:15.
As always, the 4x200 relays at the end of the meet were exciting, with the York athletes that did not run encircling the track to cheer their teammates on. The junior girls' relay of Marina Swietek, Noelle Moulton, Marshall and Carl started the event off with a convincing win. Jenna Hosmer, Kristina Clements, Rasche and Lacey Cartier placed second in the senior girls' relay.
The junior boys' team of Cory Gallant, Dan Herbein, Mike Cline and Ryan Kelly placed second. The senior boys' relay proved very exciting as well. McMahon, running for the B team, was forced to start behind Cannata of the A team. Coming out of the final corner, both were forced to leap over a Traip runner who crashed. At the handoff, Potter, also of the B team, took the lead over Chris Wacker. Higgins just managed to maintain the lead over Hirst in the third leg. Cory Borgel then fended off Vogel at the finish line, anchoring a B-team takedown of the A team. However, whichever team is entered on the books as the A team gets the points, so the B team was left out of the final tallying.
Plenty more York athletes scored those crucial points, including: Sibley Blum (pole-vault, 200), Cartier (400, 2 mile), Clements (200), Nat Freeman (2 mile), Herbein (400), Hosmer (55), Kelly (200, 400), Alex Moser (400, 2-mile), PJ Saltzman (400) and Swietek (200).
