The Boothbay Region High School track and field season officially began with a meet at Camden Hills Regional High School on Friday, April 17. Unfortunately, Camden’s fields were still too soggy for field events, so the meet ended up being all track and no field.

BRHS and Maine Central Institute were the only Class C schools (enrollment 444 students or less) in the competition on Friday. The other competitors were Skowhegan Area High School (Class A, enrollment 675 or greater) and four Class B teams (enrollment 445-647): Camden Hills, Nokomis Regional High School, Medomak Valley High School and Oceanside High School.

Despite its small size (current enrollment 206 students), BRHS finished second among all male teams and fourth among the girls. BRHS secured seven first place finishes, winning the boys and girls 800m and 1600m races, the boys and girls 1600 race walk events and the boys 4x800m relay.

Coach Nick Scott said he was pleased with the season opener.

“Friday's meet went really well for us. I haven't had a moment to compile the results but the boys being just out of second place was great to see,” Scott wrote in an email. “We were missing several point scorers, too, which makes it all the more encouraging. On top of all of it, it was a running events only meet, so had we had the throwing events, I think we may have come out on top, as our throwers are really, really good this year.”

Hannah Morley led both teams in scoring. Morley took first place in both the 800m (2:44.49) and 1600m (6:03.66) races, earning 20 points for the Lady Seahawks. Teammate Morgan Crocker earned 12 points, placing third in both the 100m hurdles (17.84) and 300m hurdles (51.26) events.

Samantha Carter walked in 10 more points for the Lady Seahawks, finishing first in the 1600m race walk (10:35.66). Angie Perkins placed fourth in the 200m dash (30.33) and fourth in the 300m hurdles (51.90), scoring 8 points. Sinead Miller placed 6th in the 300m hurdle event, adding 1 point to the BRHS team score.

In the 4x100m relay, the BRHS team of Crocker, Perkins, Miller and Sydney Mercier placed fourth at 57.84, earning 4 team points. The team of Crocker, Morley, Miller and Perkins placed fourth in the 4x400m relay, for 4 more points.

Skowhegan bested the girls teams with 91 points, followed by Camden Hills, 69, Nokomis, 64, BRHS, 63, Maine Central Institute, 33, Medomak Valley, 25, and Oceanside High School, 21.  

 Joey Paolillo led the BRHS boys in scoring, with 12 points. Paolillo placed fifth in the 800m race (2:21.71) and first in the 1600m (5:05.65). Kyler Carty and Kyle Alamo both earned 10 points each. Carty won the 800m race (2:17.82) and Alamo won the 1600m race walk (9:07.11).

Matt Burnham and Trystan Mercier both picked up 6 points for BRHS. Burnham placed third in the 1600m race (5:26.12) and Mercier third in the 3200m race (11:50.22). Abel Bryer and Shane Johnson, who usually score big for BRHS in field events, joined the runners and earned 2 and 4 points, respectively. Bryer placed fifth in the 400m dash (1:00.02) and Johnson placed fourth in the 300m hurdles (49.50).

In the 4x100m relay, the team of Jacob Leonard, Draco Peaslee, Antonio Maulolo and Brandon Andrews finished fourth at 49.66, earning 4 points. The team of Howie Carter, Matt Burnham, Liam Conlin and Trystan Mercier won the 4x800m relay in a time 9.29.23, for 10 points.

Medomak Valley won the boys competition with 71 points, followed by BRHS, 66, Oceanside, 54, Maine Central Institute, 53, Camden Hills, 44,  Skowhegan, 39 and Nokomis, 11.

BRHS track and field teams compete next at Wiscasset on April 28 at 3:45 p.m.

For a complete photo gallery of the Camden meet, go to http://rh.exposuremanager.com.

Click here for full race results.