Track
Indoor track ready for championships
By Kevin Higgins
The Wildcats indoor track team's senior 800 relay team had a strong showing this past weekend in the final meet of the regular season. Pictured are Lacey Cartier, Kristina Clements, Jenna Hosmer and Katie Rasche.
Photo by Lisa Wagner
YHS sophomore Mike LaPointe works hard to get some space in last Friday's track meet at the University of Southern Maine.
Photo by Steve Rasche
State long jump qualifier Kate Rasche lets loose for York High School last Friday at the University of Southern Maine.
Photo by U. Seeler
YORK - The regular season of indoor track came to a close last Friday night, Feb. 2.
The girls scored 174.5 points, but Greely still managed to elude the charging Wildcats, winning with 207.5 points.
The boys scored 126 points, placing third behind Falmouth (210) and Greely (173).
The girls finish the season with a record of 25-3, while the boys' record is 21-6.
The Wildcat jumping squad has been having a spectacular season. On Friday night, four athletes in particular jumped farther than anybody else.
High jump started things off. First, three girls in the meet cleared 5 feet, 2 inches, within a quarter of an inch of the conference record. Regan Cleminson won because she had less misses at lower heights. Her jump is an inch over the school record she set earlier in the season.
Graham kept the high jumping power alive, winning the senior boys' high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 10 inches. This jump broke the senior class school record he tied the week before.
The triple jump featured the other two standout jumpers. Andrew Potter broke 40 feet for the first time, winning the boys' triple jump with a distance of 40 feet, 3.5 inches. Potter is currently the boys' team high scorer, with 77.5 points. Graham is second in this jumping rivalry at a mere half of a point behind.
Chelsey Tewell won the girls' triple jump by two feet. She jumped 34 feet, .25 inches. Tewell is the team high scorer, having racked up a total of 168 points in her first season in indoor track.
York also had several more state qualifying performances. Emily Marshall qualified in the 55-meter dash. The sophomore is now within a hundredth of a second of breaking eight seconds.
Molly Carl qualified in two more events. She added the 200 and 400 to her list of options for the state meet.
Lacey Cartier broke her own senior class record in the two mile, finishing in a time of 12 minutes, 9 seconds.
As usual, York's relay proved exciting to watch and cheer, as well as really fast. Lindsay Putnam, Kelly Silin, Winona Hapgood and Emily Goering placed a solid second in the girls' 4x800 relay.
The boys' team blew away the competition, running to a strong seed in the championship meets. Alex Moser hung with the Falmouth front-runners until the very end. In the next leg, Kevin Higgins caught the Falmouth number two man in the first lap, and proceeded to open a sizeable gap. Ryan Means and Nick McMahon widened the gap and secured the win.
Both the girls' 4x200 relay teams placed second to Greely. Marina Swietek, Noelle Moulton, Emily Marshall, and Molly Carl ran the junior girls' relay. Greely took an early lead, but York's girls closed the gap over the course of the race.
In the senior race, Greely jumped out to another early lead. Katie Rasche, Kristina Clements, Jenna Hosmer and Cartier stayed with the Greely girls, just missing them by a tenth of a second at the finish line.
The junior boys' team of Mike Cline, Jayce Insko, Moser and Ryan Kelly ran a solid race, finishing fourth.
The senior boys' started things off fast, and kept them that way, placing second. Graham, Cory Borgel, Andrew Hirst and Mark Vogel are now within a second of the school record.
Plenty of other athletes scored points for the Wildcats, including Annie Boardman (mile), Hillary Christopher (shot-put), Kirsten Dean (high jump, hurdles), Kaitlyn Dow (high jump), Hosmer (55, 200), Stephanie Lomasney (hurdles), Jillian Means (pole vault), Kiera Pressey (shot-put), Rasche (long jump, hurdles), Lizzie Roy (shot-put), Kelsey St. Germain (400), Swietek (55, 200), and Lindsay Warner (shot-put).
Quite a few boys also score, including: Dave Cannata (high jump, 200), Robert Cook (55, 200), Cam Dillon (high jump), Brian Farrell (400), Cory Gallant (high jump, hurdles), Justin Gallant (hurdles), Dan Herbein (high jump), Higgins (400), Andrew Hirst (shot-put) Jayce Insko (high jump), Billy Kennedy (shot-put), Means (800), Sam Rasche (hurdles), Pat Seaward (hurdles, high jump), Vogel (hurdles, 55), and Chris Wacker (200).
Now that the regular season is over, the championship meets commence. This Friday, Feb. 9 is the Western Maine Conference Championship, featuring all the team the Wildcats have competed against this season so far.
