Several Eastern Maine athletes enjoyed successful outings at recent postseason meets in the sports of wrestling and track and field.
Topping the list was Ellsworth senior Ben Shorey, who won the one-mile racewalk events at the Nike Indoor Track and Field Championships in Landover, Md., on Saturday and the New Balance National Scholastic Indoor Championships in New York on Sunday.
“It was a long weekend and a lot of driving, but it was fun,” said Shorey, who plans to attend the University of Wisconsin-Parkside on a partial scholarship in the fall.
Saturday’s meet featured a 1-2-3 sweep by Mainers in the one-mile racewalk at the Nike Championships. Shorey’s time of 6:20.0 was a meet record and only nine seconds off the junior national high school record.
“I was trying to go for the record, but I was just a little off,” Shorey said. “We only had five guys competing at the Nike meet, but there were 16 at New Balance. Two of the guys [at New Balance] were from Ireland.”
Runner-up was Mt. Blue of Farmington’s Adam Staier (6:53.33) and third place went to Ellsworth junior Owen Schoppe (7:07.0).
In the girls one-mile racewalk on Saturday, Anne Favolise of Columbia was third overall with a time of 8:06.47 and Lynda Beckett of Scarborough was fourth (8:07.78). Elena Yates of East Wilton was sixth (8:11.59) and Amanda Bergeron of Poland seventh (8:21.0).
On Sunday, Shorey walked away from the competition with a time of 6:15.12. Teammate Schoppe was second with a time of 6:59.34. Jonathan Chasse of Readfield, who was disqualified at Saturday’s meet, finished fifth in 7:27.95. Staier was disqualified.
Favolise turned in the best effort among Mainers Sunday with a time of 8:01.99, good for an eighth-place finish. Bergeron (8:17.29) was 11th, Beckett (8:26.59) was 15th, and Yates (8:39.45) was 17th.
At the New England Championships Saturday, March 3, in Boston, no Mainers were able to finish higher than second place and only two student-athletes from Eastern Maine attained a top-five finish.
The boys led the Maine contingent as Michael Downing of Gorham was second in the mile with a time of 4:24.38 and Patrick Tarpy of Yarmouth was runner-up in the two-mile with a 9:36.42.
Waterville’s Troy Irvine was fifth with a time of 7.64 in the 55-meter high hurdles, just .07 seconds behind Massabesic of Waterboro’s Nate Holmes (7.57).
In the long jump, South Portland teammates Jesse Ludwig (21 feet, 111/4 inches) and Nate Thompson (21-111/4) finished 4-5, respectively, in the long jump.
The only other top-five finisher was Luke Caron of Brunswick in the shot put. His throw of 56-61/2 was good enough for fourth.
In girls competition, Bridget Gagne of North Yarmouth Academy was second in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 2:56.12. Halie Kennie from Bonny Eagle in Standish was third in the shot put with a throw of 38-73/4 and Mount View of Thorndike’s Audra Caler took fifth in the mile with a 5:12.81.
At the New England Wrestling Championships (Saturday, March 3) at Pinkerton Academy in Derry, N.H., senior Steve Weeman of Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield continued his impressive winter postseason run by winning a consolation final match in the heavyweight (275-pound) class with a forfeit over Cosmo St. John. The win gave him a fifth-place finish.
Weeman won both Eastern Maine and state Class B individual championships and was named outstanding wrestler in both meets to finish up a 30-0 season.
Other Maine standouts included Lisbon’s B.J. Hamm, who finished fourth in the 119 weight class after being decisioned 9-8 in the consolation final. Maine Class A champ Ben Goulette from Morse of Bath was fifth in 145 with a 5-0 decision over a wrestler from Foxborough, Mass., and Matt Waite from Mt. Blue in Farmington was sixth after losing a 6-3 decision to Scott Fay of Danbury, Conn.
Maine all-around champion Sarah Leong of Hampden chose not to compete at the New England Gymnastics Championships due to scheduling conflicts with USA Gymnastics meets she had already committed to the week before and after New Englands, which were held last weekend.
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