Scarborough girls win second straight ‘A’ title Labreck wins 3 events, sets 300 hurdles mark

BATH – With her team facing a tough task trying to duke it out with the larger teams at the Class A high school state track and field championship at McCann Field, Jesse Labreck viewed things from a more personal vantage point Saturday.

“It’s not like we look at it team-wise,” said the junior from Messalonskee High School in Oakland. “It’s more an individual thing where we’re all trying to do our best in the events we do, and then see what happens.”

What happened was heavy meet favorite Scarborough put up 92 points to outdistance second-place Brunswick and Edward Little of Auburn by 21 points to win its second straight state crown and Labreck had the individual performance of the meet by breaking a state record along with three wins and a second-place finish.

Labreck’s Eagles wound up sixth with 39 points. Thornton Academy of Saco was fourth with 68 and Gorham finished fifth with 47.

Labreck won the 300-meter hurdles with a state-record time of 44.92 seconds, and took the 100 hurdles and the triple jump. She also finished second in the high jump. That should silence the doubters.

“When I dropped the 400, everyone was telling me I wasn’t going to be as good in the 300 or the other hurdles, but that just made me want to do better,” Labreck said. “I definitely get motivation from being talked down to.”

It’s hard to be talked down to when you’re on top, and Labreck reached the pinnacle as the winner of the 300 hurdles, in which the top three finishers broke the previous state record of 46.1 run by Portland’s Karen Sandora in 1984 and Gardiner’s Jenna Lavallee in 1993. Labreck edged second-place finisher Bethany Dumas from Cony of Augusta and Gorham’s Leigh Maniscalco, who finished third despite times of 45.53 and 45.82, respectively.

“That was a great race, but I was kind of expecting it to be like that because the seeding times were so close,” Labreck said.

Guess Labreck’s event switch wasn’t such a bad call after all.

“I always did the 400 and I was pretty good at the 100 hurdles, so I asked if I could try the 300,” Labreck said. “I really like it, but I have to count every step. If I don’t, I get messed up.”

She didn’t mess much up Saturday. Portland’s Jasmine Powell is the only competitor who can boast about beating Labreck after jumping 5 feet, 4 inches in fewer attempts to win the high jump.

Saturday’s other individual standout was Brunswick’s Kristin Slotnick, who won the 100, 200, 400 and long jump.

Another multiple winner was Dumas, who was first in the javelin and the pole vault.

The top finishes by Bangor-area athletes were turned in by Brewer sophomore Mackenzie DeGraff, who was fourth in triple jump, and Bangor junior Jennie Lucy, who was fourth in the 800.

DeGraff also ran the anchor leg of Brewer’s fifth-place 4-by-100 relay team that included K.C. Collins, Kira Giroux and Colleen Carr.