GORHAM — This is becoming an annual rite of February for the Scarborough girls’ indoor track team. Not so much the habit of winning state championships, but the manner.
Monday at the University of Southern Maine Field House, the Red Storm won their seventh consecutive Class A team title. And for the second straight year, the chase for the title hinged on the final event — the 800-meter relay.
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Trailing Bonny Eagle 70-69 going into the relay, the Red Storm led the four-lap race from start to finish, with the quartet of Morgan Rodway, Emilia Scheemaker, Emily Tolman and Nicole Kirk winning in 1 minute, 50.42 seconds, ahead of Brunswick (1:51.29) and Mt. Ararat (1:51.96).
Bonny Eagle finished sixth 1:52.76.
“There’s a lot of pressure, there’s a lot of adrenaline and our athletes really perform under that pressure,” said Scheemaker, who won individual titles in the long jump and triple jump.
“Our depth is really important because you take a point here or there, and it really does a lot to bring up your score.”
Scarborough won the team title with 79 points, ahead of Bonny Eagle (72) and Brunswick (70) in the 20-team field.
The Red Storm also won the boys’ title with 68 points, ahead of Mt. Ararat (61), Bonny Eagle (44) and Edward Little (40) in the 22-team field.
Like their counterparts in the girls’ competition, the Scarborough boys needed points in the final two events to secure the championship.
Nick Morris (10:16.24) edged Andy Reifman-Packett of Mt. Ararat (10:16.31) for sixth place in the 2-mile, collecting two points.
The Red Storm also finished fourth in the 800 relay, earning four points to win their second state championship in three years.
“The challenge for us was that everyone had to perform,” said Orin James, who won the high jump and finished second in the 55 hurdles and sixth in the pole vault.
“We were counting on a bunch of people really stepping up and then we got all the little points. And the little points all add up.”
The Red Storm had only three first-place finishes, each worth 10 points — the 3,200 relay, Nick Morris in the 800 and James in the high jump — but they scored in 11 events. That was enough to hold off Mt. Ararat, paced by McKenzie Gary, who earned 30 points with three individual titles.
“To be in contention, it means so much,” Gary said of Mt. Ararat’s performance.
“Throughout the season, you see everybody working so hard and this is what it comes down to. It’s go big or go home, and everyone does their best here.”
Gary edged Portland’s Imadhi Zagon, the defending state champion, by .02 seconds to win the 55 in 6.62 seconds — .02 seconds off the Class A record of 6.6 seconds set by Colby Brooks of Edward Little in 2006.
Gary also won the 200 and overcame a shaky start in the long jump to win the state championship with a leap of 22 feet, 1 1/4 inches.
Jack Terwilliger of Cheverus won the mile and 2-mile (10:00.43), widening a narrow lead over Hussein Ibrahim of Lewiston (10:05.99) on the second turn of the final lap to capture the 2-mile title by more than five seconds.
In the girls’ meet, Edie Pallozzi of Deering won the mile (5:21.54) and the 800 (2:22.83), needing a last-lap kick to move into the lead in the 800.
“Some of the girls started out really fast so I had to pick up my pace,” Pallozzi said of the 800.
“The 800 is so much faster. When I did my last kick on the last lap, I wanted to finish strong.”
Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi can be contacted at 791-6415 or at: rlenzi@pressherald.com
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