BAR HARBOR, Maine — It has been a banner year for schoolboy athletics at Mount Desert Island High School.
Last winter, the Trojans’ basketball and indoor track and field teams won Class B state championships and the football team played for a Class C state title during the fall.
That success has translated to the spring courtesy of the outdoor track team, which showed on Saturday it has not rested on its championship laurels.
MDI racked up 168 points to blitz a 10-team field to capture the Penobscot Valley Conference large school championship meet on Saturday afternoon. Hampden Academy placed second with 106 points and Brewer was third with 105.
Bangor (51.5) and Hermon (41) rounded out the top five teams.
In the girls competition, MDI distance runner Tia Tardy put her Trojans in position to earn a team sweep, scoring 32.5 points in winning all three distance races and running third on MDI’s winning 4×400 relay team.
But it was another record-setter in Bangor’s Rhian Smallwood’s triumph in the pole vault — the day’s final event — that leapfrogged the Rams past MDI 119.5-107.
MDI had no competitors in the pole vault.
Brewer claimed third place with 98 points followed by Hampden (96) and Old Town’s (53.5).
The final scores of the boys meet don’t indicate the tight battle MDI, Brewer and Hampden engaged in throughout the day, but a 1-2-3 Trojan triple jump barrage from Giovanni McKenzie, Drew Rich and Chris Farnsworth vaulted MDI to the top of the podium.
“We have an amazing triple jump team and they all like to boost each other,” said MDI junior Griffin Maristany, who was the Trojans’ lone double-winner with victories in the 400 and 200 dashes.
McKenzie’s triple jump victory and Noah Hutchinson’s win in the high jump were MDI’s other individual wins. Maristany also anchored the Trojans’ winning 4×400 team.
Maristany was admittedly exhausted after completing the 4×4, but the ending result was well worth the tired legs.
“It feels great, I’ve got an amazing team with me, we’ve always had a great 4×4 team,” he said.
Hutchinson added a second-place run in the 400 and a sixth-place effort in the 200, cementing MDI’s team-first philosophy that has translated from the gridiron and the hardwood to the track.
“That’s the thing I love about this team, we appreciate greatness,” said MDI coach Aaron Long. “It’s been a very, very special year at MDI.”
It’s also been a spectacular year for Brewer senior Austin Lufkin, who broke two league records in winning the shot put and the discus.
The Wofford College-bound Lufkin threw 59 feet, 3.50 inches in winning the shot put and 182-6 in claiming the discus.
The other double-winners in the boys’ meet were Hampden distance runner Paul Casavant, who claimed the 1,600 in 4:27.11 and the 3200 (9:51.01), and Brewer sprinter/jumper Cayd Wortman, who claimed the 110 hurdles (16.00) and long jump (20-3.5).
Casavant was also second in the 800, an event taken by HA sophomore Wyatt Lord in 2:00.83.
Broncos’ senior pole vaulter Johann Bradley continued what has been a memorable year in his own right, clearing 14-7.25, which eclipsed the MDI facility record of 14-7 previously held by Drew Nealey of Belfast.
Other individual champs included Thomas Darby of Hampden in the 100, Zach Beaton of Hermon in the 300 hurdles, Jacob McCluskey of Brewer in the javelin and Hampden’s Parker Harriman in the 1600 race walk.
In the girls meet, it was just another run in the park for Tardy, who set a league record in the 800 at 2:16.54.
The previous mark of 2:16.70 was held by Aleta Looker of Ellsworth. Tardy clocked in at 5:08.00 to win the 1,600 and 11:26.12 to win the 3,200 in a close battle with Hampden freshman Helen Shearer.
“I’ve done it before, I’ve been tripling since my freshman year,” Tardy said. “I’ve had a lot of practice with it.”
While a distance triple is big mental challenge for any distance runner, it was a position Tardy was willing to be in to help her Trojans compete for a team title.
“That was the overall goal today, so I really had to focus and make sure I was making the right decisions so that we had the best opportunity,” Tardy said.
The 800 put MDI into that position as three other Trojans placed in the top six behind Tardy, but Bangor ultimately had too much depth.
“I couldn’t have done it without the support of my family, my teammates and my amazing coaches,” Tardy said.
While Smallwood’s meet-clinching pole vault victory was one of only two individual victories by Bangor, the Rams were able to chip away via depth to pull out the team win.
The pole vault started late after the success Hampden’s Bradley had in the boys meet, but Smallwood etched her name into the record books.
The Rams senior soared over 10-6 1/2 to break a league record of 10-6 1/4 that had been held by Hermon’s Chantelle Haggerty since 2002.
Maddy Gibbs was third in the vault for Bangor, Sofia Whittman placed fifth and Sarah Danby took sixth, illustrating Bangor’s depth.
The Rams’ other individual champ was Rebecca Elliott, who covered the 1600 race walk in 9:04.52.
Bangor’s 4×100-meter relay quartet also ran to a first-place finish, with Mykayla Hoggard — who was also second in the long jump — Maddi Cormier, Kira Yardley and Lynn Boettcher teaming up to post a 51.80.
Tardy’s future Bucknell University teammate, Hampden thrower Daija Misler, and Hampden’s Christie Woodside, were the other girls double winners.
Misler claimed both the discus (119-0) and the shot put (40-8 3/4) while Woodside cleared 5 feet to win the high jump and posted a 16.35 effort in the 100 hurdles.
Other individual winners included Hermon’s Emily Perley in the javelin, Tori Koch of Presque Isle in the 400, Lia Johnson of Brewer in the 100, MDI’s Ashley Anderson in the 200, Ashlee Vilasuso of Brewer in the 300 hurdles, Grace Day of John Bapst in the long jump and Oliviah Damboise of Old Town in the triple jump.
