Tebbetts twins pace Waterville to title

loading...

GORHAM – Brewer High School track coach Dave Jeffrey couldn’t help wonder what might have been as he observed Monday’s state Class A track and field championship meet at the University of Southern Maine field house.

Jeffrey shook his head when talking about twins Elise Tebbetts and Lauren Tebbetts, each of whom posted three top-three finishes while leading Waterville to its third straight Class A girls title.

The Tebbetts girls spent their early years in Brewer.

“We moved to Waterville when we were 4,” said Elise Tebbetts, who won the triple jump, finished second in the 55-meter hurdles and placed third in the long jump to help lead the Panthers to victory.

Lauren Tebbetts placed second in the pole vault and the 200 meters and wound up third in the 55 dash for Waterville, which scored 89.33 points for a convincing win over runner-up Deering of Portland (61). Jeffrey’s Brewer squad registered a solid third-place finish with 56 points, followed by Bangor and South Portland, which tied for fourth with 42.

The boys meet was dominated by Western Maine schools. South Portland claimed its fourth consecutive state indoor crown with 99 points while Deering (77) was second and Portland (40) third.

The Tebbetts twins set the tone for Waterville, combining to score 46 points.

“The Tebbetts twins, of course, were expected to do very well today and with that kind of pressure I was incredibly happy to see how well they did,” said Waterville coach Ian Wilson. “They performed well.”

Elise Tebbetts came through on her last jump of the finals to win the triple jump with a leap of 35 feet, 2 inches.

“I’m really surprised, but happy, because that’s my best ever,” she said. “That’s my first win ever, state champion, in any event I’ve done, so I’m really excited.”

Elise also posted a personal best in placing second in the 55-meter hurdles, and she finished third in the long jump.

Lauren Tebbetts showed off her versatility while taking second in the pole vault and the 200 and third in the 55.

“I felt really good. It’s just that it didn’t happen,” she said of her pole vault effort of 10 feet. “I PR’d in the rest of my events, but it didn’t go as planned.”

The Panthers also scored with Sarah Bard, who surged into the lead with one lap left and won the two-mile run in 11:33.28. Bard also finished third in the mile and ran on Waterville’s first-place 3,200 relay squad with Emily Theriault, Erin Lawler and Alison Cole.

Cole was second in the two-mile and Lawler was runner-up in the 800.

“I think Alison Cole and Sarah Bard in the two-mile really cemented things for us,” Wilson said. “That was a huge effort and it really put the meet in our hands.”

Deering scored in eight events to claim second place. Event winners were Lauren Reid in the shot put (34-8 1/2) and Cara Chebuske in the 800 (2:24.09).

Danielle Lainez and Heather Clark were instrumental in helping Brewer finish third. Lainez, a sophomore, tied the state record by clearing 10 feet in the pole vault, but couldn’t get over the bar cleanly in three tries at 10-3.

“I tried for the state record, but I didn’t make it,” Lainez said. “I never thought I’d be able to beat [Elise] Tebbetts, because last year I only cleared 8-6 and she was clearing 10, so I was psyched.”

Lainez also notched a personal record with a third-place finish in the 55 hurdles but wound up sixth in the high jump.

Clark patiently waited for the right moment in the mile, then pulled past South Portland’s Andrea Giddings with 300 meters left to win the event in 5:14.88. She placed fifth in the two-mile and helped Brewer take third in the 800 relay.

“We had a shot at second. It didn’t quite happen, but we had a great meet,” Jeffrey said. “When you come down to state meet and you do what we did today, it means you’ve had a very successful season.”

Emily Capehart led the way for the Bangor girls, winning the 400 in dramatic fashion (1:02.67) over Deering’s Amanda Sesto by a hundreth of a second and placing second in the long and triple jumps.

“I think we came here with higher expectations for ourselves as a team, but overall people had some satisfying performances,” said Capehart, including her 400 run.

“The last 200, luckily, I was able to sneak around a couple other people on the final turn and it was an exciting finish and luckily I came out on top,” she said.

Rachel McCaslin of Westbrook won the 55 dash in 7.45 and tied a state record with a 17-61/4 effort in the long jump.

Only one point separated South Portland and Deering at last week’s Western Maine championships, but the Red Riots put together an impressive performance Monday to win the boys team title.

South Portland scored in all but two events, getting first-place efforts from Patrick Lyons in the shot put (52-01/4), Nick Macklin in the 400 (52.54), Eric Giddings in the mile (4:28.90) and Jesse Ludwig in the 55 hurdles (7.89).

“We came into the meet on paper here dead even and we just had a wonderful performance right across the board,” said Red Riots coach Paul Brogan. “There’s only two events we didn’t score in, the 55-meter dash and the 800-meter run.”

Brogan said freshman Eric Giddings’ effort in winning the mile was a key juncture for the team.

Giddings held off repeated challenges and eventually edged Deering’s Eric Olafsen by less than half a second at the finish line.

“The young man running for us works hard as the dickens,” Brogan said. “He’s only a freshman, but he runs beyond his years. It was such a mature performance for a young kid.”

Eastern Maine’s superlatives were limited, although James Belanger of Bangor placed third in the triple jump and fourth in the long jump. Ian Fraser of Brewer finished third in the 800 and sixth in the two-mile, while teammate Mike Parker was third in the pole vault.

Donny Drake of Deering also made his presence felt, setting a state record in the 800 with a time of 1:58.15 while anchoring the Rams’ victorious 800 and 3200 relay units.