In 1970, an official asked Tom Blake if he would be interested in working as a scorer at a middle-school track meet at the Portland Expo.
Blake, a South Portland student and track athlete, jumped at the chance to make a few extra bucks on a Saturday afternoon. Ten dollars, in fact.
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More than 40 years later, Blake still goes to the Expo each weekend. Now he’s the meet director for the SMAA track meets that kicked off Saturday at the Expo.
The venerable facility hosts 40 SMAA boys’ and girls’ indoor track and field meets over six weeks, including the Southwestern championships Feb. 12. Blake estimates that in the course of a day, more than 1,000 athletes, coaches and meet officials filter in and out of the Expo for the series of meets.
“Organization is critical,” said Blake, a South Portland resident, and retired firefighter and paramedic who has been involved in local politics. “Then the key is, keep the meets moving. When you have 950 athletes and everyone else, a 20-minute delay can set back the rest of the day. People tell me, ‘we can’t believe the way you run this.’ “
Each day kicks off at 8 a.m. with a girls’ team meet, and the boys’ and girls’ competitions alternate throughout the day. It’s a recent change. One set of girls’ teams used to compete in the morning and a set of boys’ teams in the afternoon, with eight meets through the course of the day.
For Blake, it’s more like a 15-hour day, and that’s before considering the work he puts in during the days leading up to each Saturday set of meets.
“I spend two days just getting ready for it,” Blake said. “But the work continues all week long. I spend the week preparing for this.
A NAME familiar to the state’s track community, and a pair of Greely shot putters led the Maine contingent this past weekend at the Dartmouth Relays, run Friday and Saturday at Leverone Field House in Hanover, N.H.
Brunswick senior Mike Slovenski won the boys’ pole vault, clearing 15 feet, 5.75 inches. Michael Burgess and Jack Fellows, both of Greely, finished first (53-6) and fourth (51-3), respectively, in the boys’ seeded shot put.
Burgess and Fellows competed Friday for Greely in a Western Maine Conference meet at the University of Southern Maine Field House, then competed Saturday at Dartmouth.
At the Western Maine Conference meet, Fellows won the boys’ senior division shot put (51-7.25) and Burgess finished third (48-3).
In the Dartmouth boys’ field, McKenzie Gary of Mt. Ararat finished fourth in the seeded long jump (20-11) and fourth in the seeded triple jump (42-4). Isaiah Spofford of Waterville finished third in the 55 (6.67) and third in the unseeded long jump (19-8.75), and Harlow Ladd of Messalonskee finished third in the seeded mile (4.24.16).
In the girls’ field, Kyia Jensen of Brunswick finished second in the girls’ 800 run in 2:24.47, behind Margo Gillis of Newton (Mass.) North (2:23.39).
Lindsay Folsom of Cony was third in the pole vault (10-11.75) and Randi London of Mt. Ararat was fifth in the seeded shot put (37-2.5).
Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi can be contacted at 791-6415 or at: rlenzi@pressherald.com
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