Devils, Storm win ‘A’ track crowns

BRUNSWICK – The rain and wind that pelted most of Maine on Saturday stayed away from Bowdoin College’s Whittier Field just long enough for the Class A state track and field championships to be concluded.

The boys meet came down to the 4×400 relay, with Lewiston edging cross-town rival Edward Little of Auburn for the Blue Devils’ first outdoor state title. The Devils finished with 82.5 points and the Red Eddies 79. Bangor finished an impressive third with 56 points, followed by Bonny Eagle of Standish in fourth with 49 and Cheverus of Portland fifth with 39. Brewer finished 17th with 9.5 points.

The girls meet went as expected, with Scarborough and the Thornton Academy Trojans of Saco dueling for the team title. In the end, the Red Storm won their first outdoor title in Class A – they won five straight in Class B from 1994 to 1998.

Scarborough racked up 104 points to Thornton’s 93. Brunswick won a tight four-team race for third with 50.5 points. Massabesic of Waterboro was fourth with 43 and Gorham fifth with 42. Bangor scored 24 points to finish 11th and Brewer’s 3 points placed it in 22nd.

In the boys meet, Bangor juniors Casey Quaglia (distance) and Cam Cormier (sprints) combined for 36 points in their individual events.

Cormier finished second in the 100- and 200-meter dashes with times of 11.35 and 22.93 seconds. He also anchored Bangor’s 4×100 relay, which finished third.

Quaglia won the 1,600 and 3,200 meters, but neither victory came without a challenge from speedy Portland High senior Josh Wang.

Quaglia outsprinted Wang in the final yards of the 1,600 to win in 4 minutes, 26.41 seconds, while Wang finished in 4:28.32.

Quaglia said his strategy was to stay with Wang and Scarborough’s Chris Harmon and then try to outkick them, but Harmon got tripped up with about 600 yards left in the race, so it became a sprint between him and Wang.

“On the bell lap, he was in the lead and had it for the next 200. Then, I started my kick, we were neck and neck and I pulled away by about two seconds in the last 100,” Quaglia said. “It was awesome.”

Bangor sophomore Riley Masters, who has been a consistent runner for the Rams this spring, finished sixth in 4:35.34.

All seven runners who placed in the 3,200 broke 10 minutes, and Quaglia ran a personal-best 9:50.55 to take the victory while Wang was second in 9:50.63.

Quaglia was seeded eighth for the race, and into the sixth lap he thought he might not be able to place as about 10 runners were in front of him. But he was able to move up when members of the pack went four wide in attempts to move up.

“They’d lose a spot and I’d move up one. Finally, on the seventh lap, I was fourth and the lead pack was four strides ahead of me,” he said.

He then thought he would have to settle for fourth place, but drew upon another kick.

“Something came over me. I’m not sure if it was being inspired by watching the ‘Coach Carter’ movie on the bus on the way down or what, but I kicked it into the next gear,” Quaglia said.

He then stepped out into lane two and outsprinted Wang in the last 50 yards to win the race.

Ben Bambrick and Antoine Gerow placed second and fourth in the javelin for Bangor, with tosses of 166-3 and 153-0.

Going into the 4×400, the Blue Devils only had to beat the Red Eddies to capture the state title, as Lewiston held a 74.5-73 lead. Lewiston anchor man Kurt Thibeault held off EL’s Garner LeValley to secure the win for the Blue Devils.

George Foster ran on both the winning 4×800 and 4×400 teams for the Devils and ran to a victory in the 800 in 1:57.04.

Edward Little sprinter Colby Brooks continued to shatter the record books, breaking the Class A 100-meter dash record with a time of 10.86 seconds. Brooks also won the 200 and anchored Edward Little’s winning 4×100 relay.

Brewer senior Brendan Carr, who will continue his running career at the University of Maine this fall, capped his high school career with a fifth-place effort in the 3,200, running to a personal-best 9:54.85. The Witches’ 4×100 relay team of Aaron Saunders, Kyle Allcroft, Dan Juilli and Bobby Coombs finished fifth in 45.80. Allcroft tied for fourth in the 200 with Kurt Thibeault of Lewiston, each running 23.46.

In the girls meet, Scarborough only had two individual winners – Kaitlynn Saldanha in the race walk and Erica Jesseman in the 3,200 – but the Red Storm spread their points out well to hold off Thornton.

Jesseman’s winning time in the 3,200 was good enough to set a Class A state record. Jesseman’s 11:06.06 effort broke the mark of 11:07.44 set by Andrea Giddings of South Portland in 2003.

Eastern Maine had plenty of individual standouts. Cony of Augusta sophomore Bethany Dumas shattered her own Class A pole vault record with a leap of 11-6 while also winning the javelin with a toss of 119-1.

Jennie Lucy of Bangor was seventh in the 400 and fifth in the 800, with times of 1:02.67 and 2:20.67. She also ran the third leg on the 4×800 relay team that placed fifth. Senior Jolene Belanger anchored that team, which also included Caitlyn Smith and Jen Rowe. Belanger went on to place fourth in the long jump with a mark of 16-3.50 and third in the triple jump (34-0.25).

Brewer’s three points came from freshman Caitlyn Wilson in the javelin. She placed fifth with a throw of 103-8.