The Scarborough girls track team won their third straight state championship on Saturday edging Edward Little by just two points.

The championship was truly a team effort for the Red Storm, who managed to rack up 72 points without any individual first place finishers.

The 3,200-meter relay team of Kelsey Schild, Abby Chick, Meghan Summerson and Whitney Chamberlain finished third to earn six points and put the Red Storm on track to the title.

Annie Mills was fourth in the 100-meter hurdles to earn four points for her team. The trend of strong relay performances continued in the 400-meter relay, where Jenny Snyder, Emilia Scheemaker, Rachelle Greene and Mills were the runners up to earn eight more points for their team.

Scarborough got a huge boost in the 800-meter run, securing 12 points thanks to huge efforts by two runners. Chamberlain finished second to earn eight points and Chick took fourth for four more. Greene earned two more points by virtue of a sixth place effort in the 200-meter dash.

“A big key was my freshman Rachelle Green scoring two points in the 200,” said Scarborough head coach Ron Kelly. “She wasn’t seeded to score. That was huge.”

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Scheemaker was third in the long jump to earn six points. She also placed fifth in the triple jump to earn another three points for the Storm.

Christy Manning was third in the javelin to earn another six points. And she was the runner up in the discus for another eight points. Manning picked up four more points with a fourth place effort in the shot put. Kelly said that Manning’s points were key, especially due to the fact that her efforts in the javelin brought some points to the team that were unexpected.

“Manning was off, but came through in the shot put,” Kelly said. “She wasn’t seeded to score in the javelin. But she had a personal record and scored points there. She was seeded second in the shot, but she has not been throwing well. She was eighth going into the finals and took fourth there. In the discus, her best event, she was seeded second and finished second.”

Sarah Gordon and Devon Leighton combined to earn 10 points in the pole vault. Gordon picked up eight with a runner up finish and Leighton gathered two points by finishing sixth.

Kelly said his team took advantage of a mistake by Gorham’s Leigh Maniscalco to gain extra points in the pole vault. “It was unfortunate Maniscalco (failed to clear) a height,” Kelly said. “That gave us two extra points there. So instead of eight points in the pole vault, we got 10.”

Chick, Manning, Chamberlain and Mills earned the final three points of the day for the Red Storm in the 1,600-meter relay with a fifth place finish. That finish gave the Storm enough points to beat out Edward Little by one spot to seal the championship.

Kelly said he was proud of the way his team performed all season and especially at the championship meet.

“We had an influx of young kids and they stepped it up,” said Kelly. “Emilia stepped up in the long jump and triple jump and then Abby Chick in the 800 and the relay. It was just a whole new group of people.”


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