We just put up a page where a Maine high schooler can find out, in roughly two seconds, how far away they are from a hammer throw record set in 1929. Nineteen twenty-nine. Calvin Coolidge was president. Nobody's grandparents had been born yet. Larry Johnson of Portland threw 179 feet 8 inches at UNH and then quietly walked off into the historical record like, here, beat that whenever you get around to it. Ninety-six years and counting. Nobody has gotten around to it.
That's the energy of the new Maine State Records page. It is a list of every all-time outdoor mark in Maine high school track and field, presented in premium gold because if a record is going to sit untouched since the Reagan administration, it should at least look expensive.
Some of these records are older than the asphalt on the track they were set on. Older than the parking lot at the meet. Older than your coach's dad, in a couple of cases. Rob Pendergist threw the javelin 210 feet 9 inches for Ellsworth in 1989. Alain Baldwin ran the boys 300 hurdles in 37.6 for Hampden in 1987. Beth Hamilton ran the girls 440 yard dash in 56.3 for Westbrook in 1979 and the event itself has since been replaced by the 400, which is a separate record, currently held by Cheverus's Victoria Bossong from 2019. Records inside records. Time travel inside time travel.
Here's the part where it stops being a nostalgia exhibit.
Every one of these records, on the new page, gets a chase row underneath it. Not who held the second-best mark twenty years ago. Not the all-time honorable mentions. The chase row shows the closest current-season Maine athlete in that exact event right now, with their mark, their school, the meet they hit it at, and a calm little percentage telling them how much faster or higher or longer they need to go.
And honestly, some of these chases are getting tight. Tighter than you'd think for records that have been sitting on the wall for a decade.
Andre Clark already gave the rest of the state a homework problem.
Last year, Andre Clark of Marshwood ran 10.57 in the 100 dash and 21.54 in the 200 dash at the SMAA Southwesterns and instantly became the new record holder for both. Both. In the same meet. He is, at the time of this writing, the only state record holder on the entire boys page who is still in high school. The page has him sitting at the top of two events with a little 2025 next to his name and the rest of the boys sprinters in Maine are now staring at numbers they helped a classmate set last June.
Bossay Ditanduka of South Portland is currently 2.18 percent off Clark's 200 dash record. That is the closest gap to any all-time Maine boys outdoor record this season. Two point one eight percent. That math is rude, and Ditanduka is also throwing himself into the long jump pit at 22 feet 1 inch, which is itself within striking distance of yet another record (Cayden Spencer-Thompson's 24 feet 1.75, set in 2018). Drew Gervais of Bonny Eagle is right behind in the 100 at 10.94, three and a half percent off. The Maine sprint scene this spring is, technically, the closest the state has ever been to its own ceiling in those events.
The Spencer-Thompson problem.
From 2018 to 2019, Cayden Spencer-Thompson of Mattanawcook Academy (Class C, four hundred kids on a good day) set the boys high jump record at 6 feet 11 inches, the boys long jump record at 24 feet 1.75 inches, and the boys triple jump record at 50 feet 7 inches. Three jumping events. One athlete. From a school you could fit inside the Scarborough field house gym.
Six years later all three records are still standing. Ethan Walsh of Fort Fairfield is currently the closest, at 6 feet 8 inches in the high jump. That's three inches shy. Three. Walsh is the kind of name worth typing into the Athletes Universe and watching, because the page now puts a number on exactly how badly he is trying to take a piece of Spencer-Thompson's wall.
Then there is the Bethanie Brown situation.
Bethanie Brown ran for Waterville from 2012 to 2013. In those two seasons she set the Maine girls record in the 1600, the mile, the 3000, the 3200, the two mile, and the 5000 meter run. Six records. One athlete. Half the girls distance page is just her name in different fonts.
The closest current chase is Laurel Driscoll of Scarborough, who is at 5:09.96 in the 1600. That is 6.74 percent off Bethanie's 4:50.39. Six and three-quarter percent might not sound like much. In a 1600 it is nineteen and a half seconds. Nineteen and a half seconds is a long, long way to make up. Driscoll's chase is real and it is on the page, but Bethanie Brown has been the answer to half a dozen questions for thirteen years and she is not in any visible danger this season.
And then there is the throwing wall.
Becky O'Brien of Greely set the girls shot put record at 52 feet 1.75 inches and the girls discus record at 161 feet 11 inches in 2008. The closest current athlete in either event is more than 22 percent off. Sloan Gardner of Cape Elizabeth is currently throwing the shot at 40 feet 6.75 inches. Ella Cameron of Yarmouth is throwing the discus at 119 feet 10 and the javelin at 128 feet 2. Cameron is ranked closest in two of the three girls throws and is still nowhere near. The throws records in this state are a brick wall painted gold.
On the boys side, Dan Guiliani's 71 feet 1.5 inches in the shot put (South Portland, 2016) is currently being chased by William Fagan of York at 54 feet 10.5 inches. Fagan is having a perfectly good season. He is also 22.85 percent off the record. The throwing records in Maine are not falling this year. They might not fall this decade.
Why this page is going to be sticky.
Because every record on it is a target, and every target on it gets a live answer to the question, who is closest right now. The whole point of putting all-time records up next to current PRs is that it gives the present a frame. Bossay Ditanduka being 2.18 percent off Andre Clark's 200 means something on this page that it would not mean on a generic standings table. It means he is closer to the all-time wall than any boy in the state in any event right now, and that is a story worth checking back on every Saturday.
The page also flips when a record actually falls. If a current athlete's PR ever surpasses the all-time mark, that card goes emerald green, the chase row becomes a New Record Holder banner.
So go look at it.
If you are a coach, your athletes' marks are already on the page. Click Maine State Records, flip to your gender, and find the events you have somebody competing in. The percentage you see next to your kid's name is exactly how much they have to chip off this season to take their name off the leaderboard and replace it with a permanent line on the page.
If you are a fan, the page is gold for a reason. These are the moments your state has produced. Cayden Spencer-Thompson out of Mattanawcook in 2019. Bethanie Brown out of Waterville in 2013. Larry Johnson out of Portland in 1929, who threw a hammer ninety-six years ago and then waited.
He is still waiting.