YARMOUTH — Heading into the Class C track and field state championship meet Saturday, North Yarmouth Academy discus thrower Muriel Adams was thinking about setting a personal best, and perhaps winning a state title.
Then, about 3 p.m., she stepped into the throwing circle at Yarmouth High and let her first throw go.
“It felt really good,” Adams said. “You can tell when a throw doesn’t feel good, but that one felt great.”
With a couple spins and one rip of her arm, Adams not only smashed her expectations, but also a 26-year-old Class C state record as her first throw flew 127 feet, 8 inches.
Adams wasn’t done. She topped that throw with her second effort, reaching 128-7.
The record had stood since 1989, when Angel Tibbetts of Boothbay set it with a throw of 127-0. That mark was not even on Adams mind entering the meet.
“I had no idea what the state record was,” said Adams, whose previous best was 118-10. “I was only focused on the stuff that I was concerned with, and (throwing) 120 has been my goal for two years now. The state record in the state meet of my senior year was just icing on the cake.”
Adams’ was the most surprising of the four records that fell on a day that ultimately belonged to Orono, which swept the boys’ and girls’ team titles by sizable margins.
The Orono girls won their fourth straight state championship with a dominating score of 132.7, a full 81 points ahead of second-place Traip Academy.
The boys’ competition was slightly closer, with the Red Riots winning their 17th title, and first since 1997, by topping defending champion Lisbon, 88-65. Foxcroft Academy was third with 54.
“I think special is a really good word for it,” Orono Coach Chris Libby said. “The girls achieved something that’s really unique and the boys really came along. They bought into the training we put in front of them and earned what they got today.”
Lauren Stoops, a junior, paced the Orono girls’ by dominating the sprints, winning the 100- and 200-meter dashes and 300 hurdles. Stoops also ran the opening leg for the Red Riots’ 1,600 relay team, which set a state record with a time of 4:08.09.
Orono would have won the team title comfortably even without any of Stoops’ points. Hannah Steelman won the 1,600, and Allison Pickering won the pole vault. The Red Riots also won 3,200 relay, were runners-up in the 400 relay and had three other second-place finishers.
“It’s comforting to get these results because we work hard and we train hard and it’s not just handed to us,” Stoops said. “We have a lot of people who excel at so many things and we really push each other. It was a total team effort.”
The Orono boys also showed off impressive depth, winning all three relays, including a come-from-behind victory in the closing 1,600 relay. The Red Riots nipped Yarmouth by two-tenths of a second.
The Red Riots’ also had two individual winners – Jake Koffman (discus) and Tristan Butterfield (800).
“For a school that’s pretty successful in athletics, it’s been a long time since our boys have achieved something like this,” Libby said. “It’s not something we thought about since Day 1. But it really grew on them that perhaps if they kept it up they could do something the girls have been doing for a while.”
In addition to Adams’ effort in the discus, Class C records fell in the girls’ 800 and the boys’ triple jump. Mattanawcook Academy sophomore Tiara Tardy won the 800 in a time of 2:16.34, breaking Bridget Gagne’s (NYA) 14-year old mark by just less than two seconds. Tardy also won the 3,200 (11:39.10).
On the boys’ side, Oak Hill senior Drew Gamage set the record in the triple jump. His leap of 45-91/2 was four inches better than the mark set by Orono’s Ethan Wardwell in 1993.
Still, Gamage admitted to being upset at not matching the 46-7 he recorded at a regular-season meet earlier this spring.
“It’s all about the form,” said Gamage. “I wasn’t feeling very jumpy and the long jump had drained my legs a little bit. But I wasn’t upset with it. I got a record.”
Gamage also finished second in the high jump (6-0) and fifth in the long jump (19-81/4).
Traip Academy’s Evan Porter won the 100 and 300 hurdles, while Foxcroft’s Judson Hunter Smith won the 110 hurdles and high jump. In the girls’ meet, Seacoast Christian’s Kylene DeSmith won the 100 hurdles and triple jump to help the Guardians finished third.
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