Hundreds of athletes from 46 schools participated in the University of Southern Maine New Year’s Invitational indoor track meet in Gorham Dec. 30. Among them, the Boothbay-Wiscasset combined team had several strong placements, three athletes qualifying for the state meet and some program records and personal bests, according to coach Nick Scott.  

“... Congratulations on a strong start to the season on Saturday,” he said in a group email. “While the meet was a long one, it was also a competitive one and it was fantastic to witness so much success by our Boothbay/Wiscasset athletes.”   

Scott said the meet highlight was individual accomplishments from the athletes. Three provisionally qualified for the state meet: Austin Trask qualified for the 55m dash, Aidric Canada for the 200m dash and Karen Higgins for the one-mile run. He also said Trask and King set program records for the 55m dash and long jump, respectively, outperforming historical stats for both schools. 

“Track is interesting in that, especially with a massive meet like the one we went to, it's not so much about an overall team finish, it's more about getting people qualified for states,” Scott said. He later added, “However, it is very much still a team sport in that you're trying to qualify as many people as possible for states so that then you can be competitive...” 

For the girls, Rose Campbell took 40th in the 55m dash in 8.34; Campbell and Sophia Mansfield placed 25th and 88th in the 200m dash in 29.56 and 33.65; Abbie Clark took 37th in the 400m dash in 1:15.67; and Higgins took 23rd in the one-mile run in 6:10.19.  

For the boys, Trask, Canada, Finnegan Gaffney, Ross Gaffney, Chase Mansfield and Neal Baldwin took 49th, 65th, 133rd, 143rd, 145th and 148th in the 55m dash in 7.26, 7.39, 8.25, 8.70, 8.74 and 8.90; Canada, Trask, F. Gaffney, R. Gaffney and Mansfield took 41st, 71st, 139th, 142nd and 144th in the 200m dash in 25.54, 26.37, 29.98, 31.06 and 33.28; AJ Crocker took 34th place in the one-mile run in 5:19.62; Cleyton Splaine took 20th in the two-mile run in 12:02.14; Alton King took 21st in the 55m hurdles in 10.47; King took 21st in the long jump with 17-7.5; Mansfield took 63rd in shotput with 27-3.5; and the relay team took 12th in the sprint medley relay in 4:23.67.  

The Boothbay-Wiscasset team is one of the smaller teams to compete in Class B, which includes schools over twice their size. Moving ahead, Scott said the goal is to qualify as many athletes as possible in order to place and score at the state meet, and Saturday was a “great jumping-off point.”  

The team will now have a meet each week for the next five weeks, and the team is in the second phase of a four-phase training program, building up its running for the state competition.  

“We work really hard, we push it as hard as we can,” he said. “And then when we get ready for that really big race at the end, we pull back so that we've got a little freshness in our legs, likening it to pulling them back in a rubber band so that it's tight and it's ready to go. And then we let go so that you can fly forward.”