DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — In the midst of their track and field dynasty, the Orono High School girls haven’t been underdogs very often.But heading into Monday’s Penobscot Valley Conference Small School Championships, the Red Riots were in that unfamiliar role, at least when head coach Chris Libby scored the meet.
“As far as the girls go I had Caribou winning the meet by half a dozen points or so,” Libby said, “so I made sure the girls knew they were in a position they hadn’t been in in a championship meet in a long time.”
That unofficial motivational tool proved to be a great jump for the Red Riots, as they showed why they’ve been one of the state’s most consistently strong programs under Libby’s watch by capturing another title after scoring 172 points to Caribou’s 133 at Foxcroft Academy.
George Stevens Academy earned third place with 87 points, followed by Central of Corinth with 51 points and Penquis of Milo with 41 to round out the top five.
If the Riots were cast into an underdog role, it didn’t appear that way when the meet was barely a half-hour old, as Orono’s 4×800 team of Hannah Steelman, Kassidy Dill, Becky Lopez-Anido and Camille Kohtala teamed up to break a league record that had stood for 12 years, clocking in at 9 minutes, 47.40 seconds.
In the eyes of Steelman, who went on to win the 1,600 and 3,200-meter runs to win the meet’s Top Performer award, that set the tone for Orono’s day.
“It was definitely the highlight of my day,” said Steelman, who will run at Wofford College next year. “It feels great to do this with my school. We’ve wanted it for so long.”
Libby even talked about “weathering the storm” early on, in particular a traditionally strong Caribou event in the 1,600 racewalk, where the Vikings racked up 24 points to take an early lead.
But Orono slowly chipped away, with O’Brien and Kohtala going 1, 3 in the long jump, Dill, Lopez-Anido and Jenna Gaetjen 1, 2, 4 in the 800 and Steelman and Lucia Smitherman 1, 6 in the 3,200 to help the Riots earn yet another trophy.
O’Brien also won the 200.
Steelman posted impressive clockings of 5:07.93 and 11:12.83 in earning her individual wins in the 1,600 and 3,200, respectively, while Dill broke the tape in 2:23.51 in the 800, but the stopwatch was the last thing on that duo’s minds.
“I just wanted to score some points for my team,” said Steelman.
“We were really motivated at practice, we talked about how we can’t let up,” said Dill.
While Steelman’s times were impressive, she had to err a bit on the side of caution with only four days until the Riots return here for the state championship meet, but for many distance runners, it’s hard to take that foot off the gas pedal.
“You definitely want to be careful because it’s easy to get excited and overwork yourself,” Steelman said.
Orono’s 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams both crossed the line first, with the 4×100 breaking the tape in 52.89 seconds and the 4×400 squad cementing the team victory with a 4:16.93 posting.
Caribou featured a pair of individual victors in earning runner-up honors, as Paige Espling stood atop the podium in the high jump and Emma Belyea led the Vikes’ racewalk barrage with a first-place performance.
Other individual champs included Eliza Broughton of GSA in the 100 and 300 hurdles, Ava Selander of GSA in the pole vault, Central’s Maija Overturf in the triple jump, Cymeria Robshaw of Penquis in the 100, Rebecca Barton of Dexter in the shot put, Jaiden Veal of Washington Academy in the discus and Morgan Dauk of GSA in the javelin.
