The Boothbay Region High School Seahawks track and field season drew to a close on June 1 in Dover-Foxcroft. While temperatures topped out at 90 F, there were other surprises in store at the Maine Class C state championship meet.

Senior Jessie Vander once again led the field, breaking her own record in the shot put set earlier this season. While Vander's throw of 35 feet, 2 inches handily won the state title, she nearly hauled home a second trophy in the discus with a distance of 104 feet, three inches, which was good enough to snag runner-up.

Nell Anthony also made room for herself at the podium. Her javelin traveled 104 feet, 4 inches, landing her a fourth place finish and a new personal record (PR).  

“(Anthony) belongs to the small group of young ladies that I've had throw over 100 feet,” said coach Ed Tostevin, who has trained athletes for more than 40 years.

While the field athletes seemed undeterred by the scorching heat, eight lanes away, it was a different story.

Distance coach Nick Scott said runners' times were inconsistent and “a bit slow.” But for the boys track team,  Benn Scully and Alex Owen had some tricks up their sleeves.  

Scully captured seventh place in both the 800 meter (2:09) and 3200 meter (10:41) races.

“Not only did Benn (Scully) place in the 800, he turned right around and ran a PR in the 3200. That's pretty awesome,” Scott said.

“The biggest surprise to me was Alex Owen placing in the mile,” Scott said. “If you look at who he beat, that is the telling part.”

One week ago, Owen finished in eighth place in the 1600 meter run against 14 other teams at the regional meet. At the state meet, not only did Owen compete against 30 other schools from multiple conferences, he managed to sneak away with a sixth place finish overall.

On the girls team, Sophia Thayer placed seventh in the 3200 meter run (12:55), Hannah Morley finished eighth in the 1600 meter run (5:54) and Morgan Crocker placed eighth in the triple jump (31 feet, 9 inches).

Overall the girls team finished eighth place out of 33 teams; the boys finished 24th out of 30. Of the 13 Boothbay competitors participating at the state meet, six of them scored points and four personal records were broken.