Twelve outdoor meets across the state in seven days. Over five thousand individual marks logged. More than four thousand of them season-best performances. The early read on outdoor track and field in Maine, two weeks in, is that this is going to be a very loud spring. Let's hand out the credit where it's due.
Karoline Gonzales is sitting on the state lead in two events.
The Mount Blue sophomore ran 12.61 in the 100 meter dash and 26.76 in the 200 at the Mt. Blue meet on April 29. Both marks are season bests, and both currently lead the state outdoor list. Karoline doing this in late April, on a cold day in Farmington, against a respectable field, is the kind of performance that puts an athlete on the radar of every coach in the state. We will be watching her athlete page carefully.
Hadley Perry pulled off the hurdles double at the SMAA quad.
The Falmouth hurdler took the 100 meter hurdles in 15.77 and the 300 meter hurdles in 47.25 at the Falmouth-Gorham-Scarborough at Massabesic meet on April 28. Both wins, both season bests, both currently leading the state. Hadley is one of those athletes who shows up in early-season meet results and quietly says, this is mine.
Ben Gapski won four events at one meet. Four.
On April 28, at the MVC meet at Wiscasset, the Boothbay/Wiscasset sophomore won the boys triple jump, the boys long jump, the boys 110 meter hurdles, and the boys 300 meter hurdles. Four events, one afternoon, as a tenth grader. Multi-event athletes who can sweep the jumps and the hurdles in the same meet do not come along often. Ben right now is doing the work of three or four spots on the lineup card, with two more years left.
More multi-event days from across the state.
Audrey O'Meara of Seacoast Christian swept the girls jumps at the MAISAD meet on April 25, taking the long jump, the triple jump, and the high jump. William Fagan from York took the throws triple at the York Throwers Only Meet, winning the javelin, discus, and shot. Olivia Rittal from Boothbay/Wiscasset ran the 100, 200, and 400 sprint sweep at the MVC meet. Carter Grenier from Lawrence took the pole vault, the 110 hurdles, and the 300 hurdles at his home meet. Larson Stone from Lewiston pulled the pole vault, high jump, and 110 hurdles at the Mt. Blue meet. Carina Castagna from Leavitt took long jump and both hurdles. Grace Mayo from Skowhegan won the long jump, triple jump, and 200 at the Lawrence meet. Angelina Boisvert from Nokomis won the long jump, 100, and 100 hurdles at Skowhegan.
These are full-fledged decathlon and heptathlon profiles showing up in late April dual meets. The state is loaded with this kind of athlete right now.
The state-leading marks board, top of the leaderboard at the moment.
On the boys side: Ali Carter from Falmouth ran 11.00 in the 100 at the SMAA quad. Mason Henderson from Leavitt ran 22.85 in the 200 at the Waterville meet, a season best. Jack Cyr from Gorham took the 400 in 50.85 at Massabesic. Atticus Merriam from Scarborough ran 1:57.64 in the 800 at the same meet. Alfie Cognata from Winthrop went 4:35.38 in the 1600 at MVC Hall-Dale. William Morris from Dirigo ran 9:47 in the 3200 at MVC Wiscasset. Devin Berry from South Portland hit 15.42 in the 110 hurdles at SMAA. Abdulkadir Munye from Deering went 42.18 in the 300 hurdles at the Sanford meet.
In the field events, Norka Kalonji from Deering jumped 21-1 in the long jump. Ethan Walsh from Fort Fairfield went 6-8 in the high jump at Old Town. Nsungui Mankatu from Lewiston jumped 45-6 in the triple jump at Mt. Blue. Devin Swanson from Gorham cleared 13 feet in the pole vault. Rocco Deschambault from Cheverus/Waynflete put the shot 51-10. Jaiden Hebert from Lawrence threw the discus 157-9. Jacob Feith from Winthrop threw the javelin 169-6.
On the girls side: alongside Karoline Gonzales in the sprints, Elliette Musica from Brunswick went 1:00.22 in the 400 at Mt. Blue, a season best. Addison Elliott from Hampden Academy took the 800 in 2:19.45 at the Old Town meet. Laurel Driscoll from Scarborough went 5:09.96 in the 1600 at SMAA. Paige Alexander from Cheverus/Waynflete went 11:14.03 in the 3200 at the same meet.
In the field, Anna Jennings from Marshwood jumped 17-1.75 in the long jump. Sydney Leveille from Marshwood went 36-5 in the triple jump. Elyannah Briggs from Old Town cleared 5-4.50 in the high jump. Isabella Harmon from Scarborough cleared 10-6 in the pole vault. Alyssa Mason from Poland threw the shot 33-5.25, also winning the discus on the same afternoon. Liz Green from Brunswick threw the discus 108-6. Ellie Thacker from Gray-New Gloucester threw the javelin 109-2.
Schools with the most event wins in seven days.
Lawrence took 20 event wins, the most in the state. Skowhegan was second with 16. Sanford had 13. Hampden Academy, Cheverus/Waynflete, and South Portland all had 12. Camden Hills, Scarborough, Leavitt, and Edward Little were all in double digits. Boothbay/Wiscasset, Windham, Lewiston, and Brunswick rounded out the top of the list.
Lawrence's 20 wins came largely from a stacked dual meet effort at home, but it counts. Twenty event wins in a single week is a fully loaded roster firing on all cylinders. Hampden Academy's 12 came across multiple meets, which says depth in a different way.
Personal bests by the thousand.
Across the 5,544 outdoor results we logged this past week, 4,329 of them were season-best marks for the athlete who set them. Some of that is the natural rhythm of early-season track. But a lot of it is just genuine progress. Kids who are running their second meet of the year and finding fitness they did not have a month ago.
Every PR shows up on the PR Board. Every athlete has a personal page with their progression chart, every event they have run, and how they stack up in their class. The class rankings sort the state into the four classes and rank the leaders in each event. Updates run every morning.
What we're watching this week.
The MVC and SMAA dual meet schedule fills back in. The KVAC starts to show up. We have several invitational meets on the calendar that will start to mix the conferences, which is when we will start to see who travels well. The Karoline Gonzales-vs-the-rest-of-the-state sprint conversation gets real once the field starts converging. Ben Gapski, Hadley Perry, and the multi-event group will start to pick up dates against tougher all-around competition. And the throwers have a couple of throws-only meets coming up that should put up some bigger numbers in the discus and shot.
Last note. Maine track and field runs on bus rides, and coaches who run the throws ring after they finish coaching the sprints. We track every name on every roster. The senior who PRs by a tenth of a second in the 100. The freshman who broke 6 minutes in the mile for the first time. The junior who finished second-to-last in the 3200 but PR'd by 15 seconds. All of it gets recorded. All of it counts.