FA boys win PVC large-school track title

By Ernie Clark

HAMPDEN — The Foxcroft Academy boys track team will head into Saturday’s Class B state championship meet on Mount Desert Island with an emotional head start after winning the recent Penobscot Valley Conference large-school championship in dramatic fashion at Hampden Academy.

Observer photo/Ernie Clark

PVC LARGE SCHOOL HURDLE AND TEAM CHAMPS — Foxcroft Academy senior claimed the PVC Large School title in the 110 hurdles on May 27 at Hampden Academy, winning the event finals in a time of 15.78 seconds. Smith also won the 300 hurdles and long and triple jumps to pick up 40 of the Ponies’ 128.50 points. Foxcroft edged Brewer High School by 10.5 points to earn the team championship. 

“It certainly can’t hurt,” said Foxcroft head coach Rob Weber, who earned coach of the year honors after the meet in a vote of his peers. “And some of these kids have been there before, so that has to help, too.”

Foxcroft finished with a 128.5-118 advantage over runner-up Brewer High School — and the outcome was truly closer than that 10.5-point margin.

In fact, the Ponies and everyone who attended the meet thought they had won by just one-half point after Foxcroft anchor runner Cooper Nelson finished third in the final event, the 4×800-meter relay.

But when Brewer, which had led for most of the afternoon only to have Foxcroft mount a point-by-point comeback in the final events, was disqualified from the relay due to a lane violation, the margin was greater but the celebration just as joyous for a team making its debut in the PVC large-school ranks by enrollment after competing against the conference’s smaller schools in previous years.

“They’re different people and it’s a different challenge,” said Foxcroft senior distance runner Gabe Piquette, “but overall I think we’re just a great team with a bunch of people who have a lot of work ethic over what most people would expect. It’s just taking a challenge and really accepting it.”

The Ponies won seven individual events and were sparked by a trio of multisport athletes, led by University of Maine-bound football recruit Hunter Smith.

Smith, a senior who won four events at last spring’s PVC small-school championships, duplicated that effort against the larger schools.

He won the long jump in a personal-best 21-2½ and the 110 hurdles in 15.78 early in the meet, then added a third victory in the 300 hurdles (41.39) before finishing 1-2 with classmate Zach Caron in the triple jump with a winning mark of 41-10¾.

Caron, a three-time wrestling state champion, also won the pole vault (12-0) and high jump (6-0) while placing fourth in the long jump, and senior Nate Church — who had to get up early the next morning to travel with the Foxcroft baseball team for a doubleheader at Presque Isle — won the 100 dash (11.36) and finished third in the 200.

“It’s a great team with a lot of heart and a lot of really great athletes,” said Weber. “We’ve got kids who are are extremely successful in other sports, but they come out and they’re excited about track, too. I think it shows.”

Mount Desert Island (89.5), Hampden (76) and Old Town (60) rounded out the top five in the 10-school boys meet, while Brewer pulled away to a 168-125 over second-place Hampden in the girls competition with Bangor (72), Old Town (56) and John Bapst of Bangor (54) next in the team standings.

Two Hampden juniors earned outstanding athlete of the meet honors. Paul Casavant shook off a sore foot to sweep the boys 800 (2:03.26), 1,600 (4:27.46) and 3,200 (10:11.91). Classmate Daija Misler won the girls shot put (38-3), discus (118-7) and javelin (96-2).

The Brewer boys stayed at or near the lead throughout the competition thanks largely to its depth, particularly in the field events where junior Austin Lufkin swept the discus (159-10) and shot put (55-6½).

Brewer led 117-107 before Caron won the high jump and teammate Max Santagata tied for fifth to give Foxcroft a 118½-117 lead with two events left.

Piquette then used a strong finishing kick to add a point to the Ponies’ lead when his fifth-place finish in the 3,200 gave the Ponies a 120½-118 edge.

“I could hear stuff [about the closeness of the competition], but really I just took in the race and had fun,” said Piquette, also the sixth-place finisher at 1,600 meters. “That’s the whole point of PVCs, that’s the whole point of running, to just do your passion and have fun with it.”

That left just the 4×400 relay where Foxcroft withstood a 49.9-second anchor leg by Brewer standout Erick Seekins to finish third and win the meet seemingly by one-half point after Nelson crossed the finish line just after Seekins was unable to catch MDI’s Ryan Bender for first place.

Seekins did catch and pass Nelson during the final leg but was unable to pass anyone else while Nelson did not allow anyone else to pass him.

When the Witches subsequently were disqualified from the relay, the Foxcroft tandem of Nelson, Evan Chadbourne, Tobias Hogfeldt and Paul Birtwistle moved up to a second-place finish in the event.

“When I got the baton we were ahead of Brewer, but I knew the Seekins kid was fast,” said Nelson, who also finished second in the 1,600 and third in the 800. “I was tired from my other events but I just tried to run fast and not let anyone else pass me.”

Others contributing points to Foxcroft’s championship effort were Evan Chadbourne, fourth in the 200; Brandon Brock, fifth in the shot put; Tobias Hogfeldt, fifth in the 400; and the Ponies’ 4×100 relay team of Chadbourne, Hogfeldt, Paul Birtwistle and Church.

Foxcroft finished eighth in the girls meet with 14 points, all by junior Emily Likoud who placed second in the discus (112-8) and third in the shot put (33-7½).

“These kids are all smart athletes, they take a lot of pride in refining what they do,” said Weber. “They’re always out trying to achieve a certain objective and they have a plan, and I think it shows because they’re well prepared and they execute and they’re just tremendously smart athletes.”

Observer photo/Ernie Clark

FASTEST AT THE MEET — Senior Nate Church of Foxcroft Academy won the 100 meters in 11.36 seconds at the 2016 PVC Large School Championship on Friday in Hampden. Smith also came in third in the 200 and he anchored the third-place 4×100 relay team to help the Ponies finish in first place.