LEWISTON — The York boys’ indoor team showed its spirit from start to finish Monday, retaining its Class B state championship at Bates College.

The Wildcats opened the meet with a winning 3,200-meter team made up mostly of underclassmen and seeded eighth, and finished with 400-meter champion Josh Brooks leading off the 800 relay with Coach Ted Hutch holding his blocks, a task usually performed by athletes.

In between, York had as many as 20 of its 40 athletes running around in hunter-orange vests to uphold the school’s unique tradition and show team pride.

“That’s typical Hutch, holding Josh’s blocks, and the kind of stuff he does. He’s with us the whole way. I don’t think we expected to do this well, but I’m personally not surprised,” said York senior Tom Reid, who scored 26 points.

York, which won its first indoor state championship last year, scored 76 points. Foxcroft Academy was second with 46, followed by Waterville with 44.

The girls’ meet was dominated by two athletes and one team.

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Bethanie Brown won two events in state-record times and took second in a third event to lead Waterville to a repeat title with 112 points. Greely scored 69.6 and Traip Academy had 38.

Lake Region sophomore Kate Hall won three events, setting Class B records in two of them, and totaled 30 points to single-handedly help her school finish fourth among 26 teams.

Hall, who also won three events last year, took the long jump with a state-record leap of 17 feet, 11½ inches and the 200 in a record 25.62 seconds. She also won the 55 in 7.17, a personal best.

The previous record in the 200 was 25.94 by Logan Crane of Freeport in 2004. The long jump record was 17-6½ by Emily Mitchell of York in 2011.

In the 55, Hall was .04 seconds shy of Crane’s 9-year-old record, an unexpected improvement.

“I was surprised when I ran 7.2 in the trials but then I thought, ‘OK, who knows how the finals will go,’ ” said Hall. “It was the adrenaline and the big meet. This year is different than last year. Last year it was go out and win events, this year it’s go after the records.”

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Brown captured the mile in 5:00.31, breaking the record of 5:02.15 she set last year.

Brown also won the 2-mile in 10:46.95. The old record of 10:48.28 was set by Cassie Hintz of Old Town in 2005.

“It’s a fun day to be on Waterville,” said Brown, beaming after winning the 2-mile.

“I knew I had a big day ahead but I wanted to get the record in the mile. But when you’re running by yourself, it’s harder. When I ran (4:54) at the Boston Grand Prix (earlier this season), I had runners around me and it felt so good. I felt like running another race after that. Today I wasn’t sure how it would go, but I was going for the record (in both events).”

In the boys’ meet, York was led by Reid, who won the long jump (20-9¾), and took second in the triple jump (41-9) and 55 hurdles (7.98). Brooks won the 400 (51.52) and was fourth in the 200 (24.09).

Joe Vogel added a third-place in the long jump (20-2½) and fourth in the 800 (2:08.43).

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York also won the 3,200-meter relay with freshman Schaefer Rees, sophomores Tony Ruest and Tucker Corbett, and senior Brandon LeBlanc (8:43.56).

Reid said all 30 athletes helped York win it. And his coach said a number of athletes, like Brooks, who had been injured, performed beyond expectation.

“I held his blocks because nobody was around, everyone was spread around the far turn getting ready to cheer,” Hutch said. “If you said a couple of weeks ago that we’d win by that much, I wouldn’t have believed it.”

Deirdre Fleming can be reached at 791-6452 or at

dfleming@pressherald.com

Twitter: FlemingPPH

 


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