John Bapst girls end 16-year WM grip on state title

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ORONO – The John Bapst girls track and field team had a lot of reasons to be excited about their season this year. The Crusaders of Bangor were undefeated. They earned a rare regular-season win over Class A Bangor. And last week, Bapst picked up a Class C Eastern Maine title.

Still, when it was announced that the Crusaders had the lead in Saturday’s Class C state championship meet at the Beckett Family Track at the University of Maine, coach Bruce Pratt refused to get too excited.

But after senior Kara Gaston won the 3,200-meter run, and with one event remaining, he relaxed for a second.

“If we win,” he said to some bystanders, “The biggest pile of jelly in the state of Maine will be me.”

After the laughter subsided, Pratt turned serious again, awaiting the start of the 1,600 relay. The Crusaders finished second in that race, and Pratt could relax for real this time.

John Bapst finished with 63 points, winning its first state title and breaking a 16-year Western Maine lock on the championship.

Orono, which had only four girls score, was the runner-up with 58 points followed by Lisbon with 52, Telstar of Bethel with 42, and Falmouth with 40.

“I think it’s great that Eastern Maine finished 1-2,” Pratt said.

Western Maine teams swept the top spots in the boys meet. Madison racked up 71 points to win the state championship and Falmouth was second with 61. Winthrop put up 52 to take third place, and Traip (39) was fourth.

Bucksport, the top Eastern Maine team, was fifth overall (38 points) thanks to Gunner Siverly’s two firsts. Narraguagus came in sixth, with Caleb Paul leading the way. John Bapst, the Eastern Maine champ, was 13th.

In the girls meet, Gaston’s 3,200 win and a victory in the 3,200 relay were the only two event wins for Bapst. But there were plenty of top-6 finishes.

Among the difference-makers, according to Pratt:

. Lily Kriechels’ sixth place in the 200 and her fourth in the long jump. Kriechels was seeded eighth in the 200, so a point there was a bonus.

. Elaine Colwell’s third in the 100 hurdles. “If she doesn’t place in the hurdles, we don’t win this meet,” Pratt said.

. Emily Picard’s fourth in the discus. “That was huge,” he said. “She’s not even our No. 1 thrower.”

Gaston ran on the 3,200 relay with Maggie Stanley, Sara Miller, and Shannon Campbell. The relay set a school record.

Gaston, who was third in the 1,600, was seeded second in the 3,200. She stayed with Telstar’s Anna Willard for a while before passing her.

“It was so great,” she said. “I was in a lot of pain in the last lap, but I just tried to do my best. … I expected us to be good, but [a state title] is better than I expected.”

Orono’s Maria Millard closed out her high school career with four firsts. She ran the third leg of the Red Riots’ winning 400 relay, along with Erin Lynn, Olivia Alford, and Michaelee Westhoven. Those four girls hooked up again to win the 1,600 relay ahead of Bapst.

In fact, those four girls scored all of the Red Riots’ points.

Things got busy for Millard after the sprint relay. Because of bad weather approaching, field events scheduled for 4 p.m. were moved up to 3 p.m., which meant Millard had to first defend her high jump state title and minutes later compete in the 300 hurdles.

Not only was the high jump early, but then Millard got into a jump-off with Lisbon’s Stephanie McCusker.

Millard, the three-time high jump winner, jumped 5 feet last week, while McCusker was seeded at 4-10. Both girls cleared 5-2, but neither cleared 5-4 in three chances. Each girl had another shot at 5-4, but both missed again. The officials moved the bar down to 5-3. McCusker missed it, Millard made it, winning her fourth high jump crown in a row, and ran over to the 300 hurdles. She won that, too.

“I train all year for the 300 and the 400,” said Millard, who jumped a season-high at 5-3. “High jump is just fun. It’s like the icing on the cake for me.”

McCusker definitely surprised Millard.

“I asked her, ‘Where did you come from?’ and she pointed to her shirt, and said Lisbon,” Millard said. “I said, ‘No, no, you were jumping at 4-10 before this.’ She said she just [had a personal best].”

Millard was especially pleased with her sub 60-second anchor leg in the 400 relay.

McCusker also had an excellent meet, setting a state record in the triple jump in the morning, winning the long jump in the afternoon, taking second in the high jump, and third in the 100.

In the boys meet, George Yodice led the Bulldogs with wins in the 110 and 300 hurdles and the pole vault. Madison, which had never won a boys state track and field title, won the 400 and 1,600 relays.

Siverly sprinted to wins in the 400 and the 200 and was second in the 100. He ran on the Golden Bucks’ 1,600 relay team that finished fourth (Nick Tymoczko, Luke Grinelle, and Josh Ames rounded out the relay team). Ames also came in third in the long jump.

Paul, a distance specialist, finished second in the 1,600 and third in the 800. Going into the 3,200, Paul figured he didn’t have much left.

But that’s not the way things turned out.

Paul, seeded second, started out in the back of the pack. He was dealing with some cramping from the 800 at the start, and a slow pace early in the race helped.

Paul slowly made his way to the front of the pack, running in third for several laps. With about 300 meters remaining, the senior made his move, pulling away from Falmouth’s Kirby Davis and Sam Crocker of North Yarmouth.

“I knew I wasn’t too much of a sprinter, but I decided to push it and if I died, I died, and if I didn’t, I went out trying,” he said. “I never thought I’d even come close. I was hoping for a fourth, maybe. I surprised myself.”

Paul also ran on a fourth-place 3,200 relay team with Brandon Emerson, Matt Nichols, and Jeremy Tyler. Brandon Beal was third in the 1,600 racewalk and Emerson took sixth in the 300 hurdles.

The Limestone/Maine School of Science and Mathematics team of Kevin Wilcox, Ian Putnam, Will Emery, and Ben Dow set a state record in the 3,200 relay.