Track
Indoor track celebrates successes
By Kevin Higgins
Sibley Blum dons the golden helmet she received for the all-new special achievement award the York High School indoor track coaches came up with in her honor - the Sky High Award - in praise of this state champion pole-vaulter.
Photo by Tori Rasche
The girls' team finished the regular season with a record of 25-3. They placed second at the Western Maine Conference meet, and third at the state meet.
The boys' team finished the season with a 21-6 record. They finished fifth at Western Maine and 13th at states.
With 116 athletes at the end of the season, the York indoor track program is the biggest in the state, and 31 athletes qualified for the state meet in 35 events. This "small" number alone is the size of many teams in Maine. The state meet was the first meet of the season at which the Wildcats did not necessitate three buses to get everyone there.
Such a large team requires a bountiful group of coaches. This year, Head Coach Ted Hutch transitioned from being a distance coach to being a shot-put coach. Coach Candace Jaffe was the primary running coach, devising all of the hallway workouts runners gutted out. Coaches Matt Convery, Matt Weber and Roger Clements paced the sizeable distance crew on their runs around town.
Coach Lisa Wagner, a former hurdle standout herself, instructed the hurdle crew. Coach Al Taplin, a legendary York athlete, coached all the jumps.
No awards night is complete without a slideshow, showcasing the wonderful pictures fans take of the team through the course of the year. This year was no exception, with pictures ranging from action shots on the track to video clips of insane sledding jumps constructed during the official sledding practices. Several weeks before the conclusion of the season, Hutch put out the word, asking people to send in any pictures they had taken. This year, the team gave Hutch a digital camera, so now the team will never be short on pictures.
It took seven different awards to truly honor the outstanding athletes of this team. The Anti-Gravity Award is exactly what it sounds like. Regan Cleminson proved herself worthy of this. The junior won the WMC senior girls' high jump and placed second at the state meet. She placed seventh at the New England meet, setting a new school record of 5 feet, 3 inches.
Andrew Hirst earned the Most Improved Athlete award. Since his freshman year, the junior has worked his way up the ranks of shot-putters, adding nearly 20 feet to his throws in that time. He placed fifth at the state meet, and set the junior class record at 44 feet, 9 inches.
The Mad Dog Award goes to the athlete who will do anything, and give it everything they can. Molly Carl certainly did, running any race her coaches asked of her. Just out of curiosity, they put her in the 400 at the end of the season, which she easily won. Then, at the conference meet, she won just as convincingly, setting a sophomore class record. This was, of course, minutes after winning the junior girls' high jump as well.
Sibley Blum is so special she forced the coaches to come up with a new award for her. They came up with the Sky High Award. This state champion pole-vaulter did not even start jumping at the state meet until virtually no other girls remained. She holds the YHS and WMC pole vault records at 10 feet, 5 inches.
The Golden Shoe Award goes to the athlete who has done it all. Lacey Cartier is the perfect example. If you look at the York record sheet, her name appears for 14 individual events and four relays. She holds the school record for every distance from the 200 all the way to the two-mile. She placed fourth in a six-hundredths-of-a-second spread in the 400 at the state meet, and set the school record at the New England meet.
The Most Valuable Athlete awards go to the boys' and girls teams' high scorers.
Andrew Potter earned 88.5 points this year. He placed sixth in the long jump and second in the triple jump at the WMC meet. He placed fifth in the triple jump at the state meet, setting a convincing new school record.
Chelsey Tewell earned 226 points this year, more than any other York athlete ever has in a single season of indoor track. After one year, she is already fifth on the all-time points list. She won the 55 dash and the 55 hurdles at both the WMC and state meets. She set WMC records in both these events by quite a bit. She also won the WMC triple jump. At the New England meet, she place 10th in the dash and 13th in the hurdles.
Several other records were broken this year. Pat Graham set a new senior boys' high jump record at 5 feet, 10 inches. Jillian Means set a sophomore pole vault record at 6 feet, 6 inches. Marina Swietek, Emily Marshall, Carl and Tewell set the junior girls' 4x200 relay record. Robert Cook, Cory Borgel, Hirst and Mark Vogel set the senior boys' 4x200 record.
The boys' 4x800 relay team did not break the record, although they did qualify for the New England meet. Nick McMahon, a member of last year's state record relay team, was joined by teammates Kevin Higgins, another New England veteran, and Ryan Means and Alex Moser.
With the indoor season finally completely finished, coaches and athletes can turn their attention to the outdoor track season. Sign-ups are already starting this week, and official practices begin Monday, March 26.
The girls' team is the defending state champion, and looks to be in top shape once again. Last year's boys' state runner-up team is significantly depleted, but don't count them out just yet.
