High school track athletes train and compete all season for the chance to compete in conference and state championship meets. After a successful season in small events, Boothbay Region High School’s track teams now step onto the big stage. As of May 19, 23 athletes from the BRHS boys track team and 13 athletes from the girls teams have qualified to compete at the Mountain Valley Conference Championship meet in Augusta on Thursday, May 28. Based on last week’s match-up against MVC top-ranked Lisbon, both BRHS teams appear to be in a very good position for the MVC competition.

BRHS track teams competed at two events last week, a MVC Class C meet at Lisbon on Tuesday, May 19 and the Capital City Classic at Cony on Friday, May 2, which included Class A, B and C schools.

On Tuesday in a MVC pre-match, both BRHS teams placed second behind Lisbon’s big track machine. For the girls, Lisbon won the event with 137 points, followed by BRHS, 84, Dirigo, 63, Mountain Valley, 51, and St. Dom’s 46. For the boys, Lisbon won the meet with 262 points, followed by BRHS, 129, Mountain Valley, 76, Dirigo, 64, Oak Hill, 30, and St. Dom’s, 3.

Morgan Crocker led all BRHS scorers with 38 points. Crocker easily won the triple jump (34-00.0) but had to dig deep for her other wins of the evening against Lisbon’s Chase Collier. In a multi-event duel with Collier, Crocker came out on top. She won the 100m hurdles (17.22), edging out Collier by a half second. In the 300m hurdles, Collier won the event and Crocker placed 2nd (50.40) less than a second later. Crocker also won the long jump event (15-10.50), with Collier placing second (15-10.00). These two athletes could not be more evenly matched in these events and will be facing off again this week for MVC titles.

The rest of the event’s top scorers were Abel Bryer and Angie Perkins with 26 points each, Matt Burnham and Hannah Morley, 22 points, Joey Paolillo, 20 points, Kyler Carty, Antonio Maulolo, Trystan Mercier, and Lisa Pawlowski, 18 points, Shane Johnson, 16 points, and Dima Gosselin and Taylor Walby, 12 points.

Top scorers/events

Perkins placed 1st in the high jump (4-10), 3rd in the 200m dash (30.35), 3rd in the 300m hurdles (54.61) and 4th in the 4x400m relay; Bryer placed first in the boys javelin, 2nd in 4x400m relay, and 4th in discus (95-06); Burnham placed 4th in the 400m dash (57.00), 2nd in the 4x800m relay; Morley placed 1st in the girls 1600m run (5:52.07), 2nd in the 800m run (2:39.40) and 4th in the 4x400m relay; Paolillo placed 1st in the 4x800m relay, 2nd in the 4x400m relay and 5th in the 400m dash (57.75); Carty placed 1st in the 4x800m relay; Maulolo placed 2nd in the shot put (39.05.00), 2nd in javelin 123-00, and 5th in long jump (17-02); Trystan Mercier placed second in the 3200m run and 1st in the 4x800m relay; Pawlowski placed 2nd in the high jump (4-08.00)and 4th in the 4x400m relay; Shane Johnson placed 1st in the discus (99-08) and 4th in the javelin (109-08); Dima Gosselin placed 3rd in the 100m dash (12.22), 3rd in the 200m dash (25.17) and Taylor Walby placed 4th in the 100m hurdles (19.48), 5th in the 200 m dash (31.14) and and 4th in the 4x400m relay. Other notable scorers were Allie Simmons 2nd in discus (72-10), Connor Demmons 2nd in discus (98-05), Lucas Leighton, 3rd in shot put 35-08.00.

Capital City Classic

Twelve teams converged on Augusta for Friday’s “under the lights” meet. Despite the stiff competition, both BRHS teams turned in solid performances. The Seahawks finished second overall behind Lisbon and Lady Seahawks placed fifth. Coach Nick Scott said he was again impressed with the team performances. “It was a really great meet. The boys' team placed second in the meet, which is the best boys finish that I can remember.”

Scott said there were several meet highlights.

“Morgan Crocker set a new PR in the 100 hurdles and almost broke 17 seconds. The boys 4x400m set a season PR of 3:48 - really exciting race to watch. Lisbon took the early lead then Matt Burnham passed the Lisbon runner in the third leg to take the lead.  Joey Paolillo held the lead until the 200m when he was passed by the Lisbon runner, but pulled out an amazing comeback and passed the Lisbon runner in the closing stretches.”

“Abel Bryer had a big night, winning the javelin, throwing a PR in the shot, ran a PR leg of the 4x400m, and placed in the discus. Antonio's win the shot put was really impressive, beating out a really talented individual from Lisbon.”

BRHS standouts in Friday’s meet were Crocker, 2nd in 100m hurdles, 3rd in the 300m hurdles, 2nd in long jump and 1st in triple jump; Bryer placed 1st in javelin, 3rd in discus and 4th in shot put; Maulolo placed 1st in shot put and 3rd in long jump; Kyle Alamo placed 1st in the 1600m racewalk; Perkins, 2nd in high jump, Johnson, 2nd in discuss; Morley, 5th in the 3200m run run; Gosselin, 5th in the 100m dash, Burnham, 5th in the 1600m run, Paolillo, 4th in the 3200m run; Simmons, 5th in discus. The boys 4x800m relay team placed 2nd, their 4x400m team, 1st and their 4x100m team 3rd.

On Thursday, May 28, both teams travel to back to Cony High School in Augusta for the MVC championship meet. The meet starts at 3:30 p.m.