LEWISTON – The Sanford boys’ track and field team won its first Class A state title Wednesday — with an emphasis on the field as the vaulters finished the meet that started Saturday.

Sanford took the Class A crown with 76 points, while Cheverus, who did not score in the event, finished with 65. Bonny Eagle was third with 57.

Kevin Manning won the vault with a jump of 13 feet to lift Scarborough to sixth place with 35 points.

Sanford senior Nick Wall, who was seeded fourth, tied for second to put Sanford out of reach as the event was continued in dry conditions at Bates College, and a field event normally lost in the larger meet’s buzz fell squarely in the spotlight.

“We’re going home to a parade at the school. The kids in my (physical education) class made the banners. After Nick’s first three jumps, we knew,” said Sanford Coach Kevin Way.

In the girls’ meet it was more of a battle as Edward Little and Scarborough both had two vaulters apiece, but in the end it was the Red Storm who had two of their athletes score to lift them to the Class A title with 84.5 points over the Eddies’ 80.

It was Scarborough’s second title in four years, and the 10th in 40 years as coach for Ron Kelly.

“This today was a close meet with three teams. I didn’t think two teams would score in the 80s. We had to have Bangor falter a little, and we had to have a perfect meet. And for the most part, we did,” Kelly said.

The Red Storm did on Wednesday with seniors Katherine Bailey, seeded third, and Andrea Tolman, seeded sixth, finish second and fifth in the pole vault, both coming up with clutch performances.

Bailey cleared 10 feet, 6 inches on her first try to secure second place; and Tolman performed after two weeks of inactivity following a hamstring strain to finish at 10 feet and put the Red Storm past the Eddies.

“That was key I cleared it on my first jump,” Bailey said.

“I don’t even want to think about it if she hadn’t. Going into the meet, there was a one-point difference with us and Edward Little,” Tolman said.

Meanwhile, the boys’ meet, while anticlimactic with Sanford’s runaway lead, was an unusual finish to a high school career for Hall, the vaulter used to performing out of the limelight.

“The kids were antsy. It was tough for all of them. But we were excited,” Way said.

Wall said since the vault was postponed Saturday, he was nervous thinking of the pressure, and the scenarios.

If Bonny Eagle’s vaulters finished first or fourth, or second or third, the Scots would have turned the boys’ meet into a dog fight with Sanford.

As it was, that didn’t happen, and Wall brought his usual calm composure into the one-event meet.

“I’ve been doing this four years. I wanted to finish with a bang. I was nervous before today. I was a little worried. But that faded when I got on the runway,” Wall said.

Staff Writer Deirdre Fleming can be contacted at 791-6452 or at:

dfleming@pressherald.com

Twitter: Flemingpph

 

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