Drew Nealey of Northport and Austin Lufkin of Clifton came up with big performances over the weekend at the New Balance Nationals Outdoor track and field championships at Greensboro, North Carolina.
Nealey, a recent graduate of Belfast Area High School, finished third in the boys’ championship-level decathlon. Lufkin, a rising senior at Brewer High School, finished first in the emerging elite division of the boys discus.
Nealey, who will attend the University of Rhode Island this fall, totaled 6,668 points during the two-day, 10-event decathlon.
In the first day of the decathlon Saturday, he placed 13th in the 100 dash (11.63 seconds), eighth in the long jump (19 feet, 9 inches), sixth in the shot put (39-11¼), tied for third in the high jump (6-3¼) and 12th in the 400 (52.46).
During Sunday’s concluding events, Nealey placed second in the 1,500 (4:34.0), fourth in the javelin (152-1) and pole vault (13-9¼), third in the discus (129-5) and ninth in the 110 hurdles (16.6).
Nealey won the 110 hurdles (15.59), 300 intermediate hurdles (42.07) and pole vault (14-7) while finishing second in the javelin (158-10) at this spring’s Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championships.
He then starred for Belfast at the Class B state championship meet, winning the pole vault for the third straight year with a record best of 14-7 and also winning the 300 hurdles (41.81). He placed second in the 110 hurdles and javelin.
Nealey placed second in the pole vault at the New England championships at 13-9.
Nealey was one of two Mainers to score a top-five finish in the boys decathlon at the nationals, as Sam Rusak of Scarborough placed fourth with 6,585 points. Rusak’s effort included first-place finishes in both the discus (132-6) and pole vault (15-5) during the second day of the competition.
Hayden Ashley of Tulsa, Oklahoma, won the decathlon with 6,933 points.
Lufkin won the emerging elite division — for high school athletes who have not yet achieved champion-division qualifying standards — of the boys discus with a best of 163 feet, 2 inches on the third of his six attempts.
Lufkin also finished 24th in the championship division of the shot put with a best of 55-11¼.
The performance continued a strong spring in the throwing events for Lufkin.
At the Penobscot Valley Conference large-school championships, he set a league record in the shot put (55-6½) and also won the discus (159-10).
Lufkin then won the Class A state championship in the discus (168-4) while placing fourth in the shot put (51-6¾).
He reversed those finishes at the New England championships, winning the shot put with a best of 58-5¼ and placing fourth in the discus at 155-8.
Jake Koffman of Orono High School placed 15th in the championship division of the boys discus at the New Balance Nationals Outdoor with a top throw of 169-11.
The Red Riots’ rising senior earlier this spring set a Maine all-classes record in the discus of 189-9 at the Class C state championships and went on to win the same event at the New Englands with a best of 174-10.
Maine also was well-represented at the New Balance meet in the boys 1-mile race walk with four finishers among the top 10. That group was led by third-place Spencer Dunn of Auburn (7:01.84), while Trevor Judd of Livermore was sixth in 7:31.69, Bryan Ward-Sims of Fryeburg was eighth (7:57.59) and Nicholas Parrott of Wells was 10th in 7:58.68.
Brewer’s Lily Cohen was 27th in the girls race walk in 8:43.17.
