SACO – In their final tuneup for this weekend’s track and field state championship meets, the Bonny Eagle girls and Scarborough boys gave opponents a lot to be concerned about as they easily won the team titles Monday at the SMAA championships at Thornton Academy.
In the girls’ meet, Bonny Eagle junior Audrey Weyand won two events and took second in another, and senior teammate Samantha Cox also recorded first- and second-place finishes. But the Scots also had lower-seeded athletes step up, such as Gaelyn Lindauer, who was seeded fourth in the 300-meter hurdles and finished second.
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The result was a runaway win by Bonny Eagle with 122 points, ahead of Thornton Academy (62) and Cheverus (58).
Meanwhile, the Scarborough boys matched or performed beyond their seeds in most of the meet’s 19 events, winning with 130 points over Cheverus (81) and Gorham (65).
Weyand finished second in the 100 meters (12.76 seconds), then won the 400 (59.34) and 200 (25.93). She improved her personal-best time in the 200 by .7 seconds and also lowered her personal-best in the 100.
“Everybody is dropping their times. I didn’t expect to win the 200. But I ran well in the 100, and so I thought, I’ll see what happens,” Weyand said.
Meanwhile, Cox took first well ahead of the field in the 1,600, winning in 5:15.98, ahead of teammate Kialeigh Marston (5:21.47). Cox then came back to finish second in the 800, getting passed with 100 meters to go by sophomore teammate Kyaunna Libby, who won in 2:23.86 ahead of Cox’s 2:24.41.
“It’s so hard to run by yourself,” Cox said of her 1,600 victory. “I felt great, and feel I can go faster. I’m excited to run it fresh at states. And in the 800, I’m so proud of Kyaunna. She could have waited to sprint past me at the end. But she went past me with almost 200 to go.
“Really, I think this sets us up well for the state meet.”
In the boys’ meet, the tone was set early for the Red Storm when freshman Colin Tardiff, seeded fourth, finished second in the 1,600 (4:40.65) behind Marshwood’s Jack Letellier (4:39.58). Tardiff took the lead from Letellier on the backstretch and held it until Letellier went past him in the final 100 meters, although Tardiff battled back hard, none of which surprised his coach.
“The bigger the meet, the better he does. We thought he was capable of winning it,” said Scarborough Coach Derek Veilleux.
The Storm swept all three relays, including a meet record in the 400 relay (43.90). They won the 1,600 relay in 3:35.64 and the 3,200 relay in 8:21.61, and also had several other athletes perform beyond expectations.
Ryan Jamison was first in the 200 (22.84) and second in the 100 (11.14), an event in which he was seeded fourth.
“My plan in the 200 was to go out hard, then relax on the turn, and then come home hard. I’ve tried that all season, but today I executed it perfectly,” said Jamison, who improved his time in the event by .4 seconds.
The Storm also got a boost in the 3,200, as senior distance ace Rob Hall won easily (10:11.28) and seventh-seeded Will Fowler surged past the pack on the backstretch to finish second in 10:12.85, taking 15 seconds off his best time.
“I ran the 3,200-meter relay at the start of the meet, and after running 2:11 when my best is 2:03, I wanted to do better for Coach,” Fowler said.
Scarborough had an easier time than expected because Cheverus was without three of its top scorers. Jumper and vaulter Jacob Schott is on a trip to Ireland, and the Stags unexpectedly lost senior multi-event star Jackson McMann to a leg injury and junior hurdler Elijah Yeboah to illness. While Schott will be back for the state meet, McMann and Yeboah are questionable, said Cheverus Coach Steve Virgilio.
However, none of that mattered to Scarborough. The Red Storm felt their performances set them up well for a state-meet victory.
“Indoors, I experienced a state championship, and it is one of the best experiences. We’re excited,” Tardiff said.
Deirdre Fleming can be contacted at 791-6452 or at dfleming@pressherald.com
Twitter: FlemingPph
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