Thornton girls edge Bangor, capture crown Deering takes home boys title

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GORHAM – Going into Monday’s Class A state championship meet at the Costello Field House at the University of Southern Maine, Bangor High girls coach Maynard Walton and everyone else who was involved thought both meets could come down to the relay.

In the girls meet, that was exactly the case.

Despite a terrific effort, the Rams could not best defending state champ Thornton Academy of Saco. The Trojans captured their second straight crown 63-60 over a determined Bangor squad.

Cheverus of Portland (44), South Portland (42) and Mount Ararat of Topsham rounded out the top five.

Deering of Portland captured the state Class A boys crown for the second straight year 109-65 over Portland. Brewer finished third (43), followed by South Portland (39) and Scarborough (31).

Walton was pleased with the effort of his girls team.

“The bottom just didn’t drop out,” he said.

He wasn’t surprised by the score, however. “Sixty to 70 points wins a state meet unless you have an exception,” he added.

Many of Walton’s young girls stepped up, including Amanda Moores, who was second in the triple jump and second in the high jump.

“I’m looking forward to next year,” said Walton. “We’ve had a lot of personal improvements, which you have to have to compete down here.”

The Rams certainly proved Eastern Maine teams can compete with the powers from the West.

“Eastern Maine can be proud of these girls. I call them my ‘pretty bulldogs,'” Walton said with a chuckle.

Senior Danielle Lainez compiled 28 points on the day, winning both the pole vault and triple jump and finishing second in the hurdles. Amanda Mooers was second in the triple jump and third in the high jump, Jolene Belanger was second in the 400 and third in long jump, and Casey Dunham took fourth in the 2-mile. Jesse Dunham helped out with a fifth-place finish in the high jump.

Twelve different athletes figured in the scoring for a balanced Thornton Academy team. The Trojans were led by Jenny Pierpont, who won the 55 meters in 7.41 seconds, placed fourth in the 200 and was on the second-place 4×200 relay squad.

Kathleen Rice won the 800 in 2:20.40 and took third in the pole vault, while Anna Biasin contributed a third-place finish in the 55 hurdles, was fifth in the long jump and was on the 4×200 relay team.

In the boys’ meet, it’s as simple as it sounds. You cannot win a race on paper. You can be favored by, let’s say, 11 seconds, and you’ll still have to toe the line and run.

Ask Portland sophomore Ayalew Taye, and he’ll tell you just that.

The young Bulldog upset South Portland star Eric Giddings, who was seeded to win by, you guessed it, 11 seconds. Taye finished in 4 minutes, 19.27 seconds. He was fourth in the 800 in 2:03.92 and ran on Portland’s winning 4×880 relay team.

In the immortal words of ESPN’s Chris Berman, that’s why you run the races.

“It just feels good,” said Taye.

Taye’s Bulldogs didn’t have enough to overcome their cross-town rivals from Deering.

Taye and his teammates were very satisfied with the result.

“It’s fun competing against Deering,” he said.

In the end, the Rams were just too much. Brian Vail set a state record in the 400 with a blazing 50.86 and came back to place second in the 800 (2:02.52). University of Maine-bound football standout Rob Sampson captured the shot put while Mike Joyce took the 200.

Sam Fletcher from Edward Little of Auburn continued the record-breaking by clocking an amazing 1:56.22, breaking the mark Donny Drake set last year.

Fletcher was looking to “go pretty even,” which is a tall task in a short race. “I didn’t want to go out hard,” he said.

At 600 meters, Fletcher figured as long as he had the lead, he might as well go for Drake’s mark. “I looked back and didn’t see anyone, so I figured I’d go for the record,” he said.

Brewer’s Chip Haskell had a fine day also, capturing the state title in the pole vault at 13 feet, 6 inches in leading his EM champ Witches to a top-six finish. Although there is no pole vault competition in the New England championships, Haskell was very satisfied.

“It’s just awesome,” he said of his individual performance and his team’s performance.

Brewer’s Dan Peterson was third in the 44 hurdles.

Giddings came back to win the 2-mile in 9:46.82.