Hannah Steelman’s day at Monday’s Penobscot Valley Conference small school championship meet was one with which any distance runner would be pleased.
Even after posting impressive victories in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs and taking part in a record-setting 3,200-meter relay, the readings on the stopwatch were the among the last things the Orono senior was thinking about.
“It’s not about the individual accomplishments,” Steelman said.
That team-first attitude has been an embodiment of the Red Riots’ recent track and field dynasty, and is a big reason why they’ll be favored to add another trophy to the growing collection at Saturday’s Class C state championships at Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft.
The Class B schools will compete at Yarmouth and the Class A teams at Massabesic in Waterboro, with all three meets starting at 10 a.m.
While Steelman is showcasing a team-first mentality in a sport where individual success is often glorified, she has had an outstanding senior campaign for coach Chris Libby.
At PVCs, Steelman was clocked at 5 minutes, 7.93 seconds in the 1,600 and 11:12.83 in the 3,200 and ran third leg on Orono’s 4×800 relay which ran 9:47.40 and broke a league record that John Bapst had held for 12 years.
She’ll compete in all three of those races on Saturday.
“Hannah will do anything the team asks and she exemplifies what’s best about this track team,” said Libby, whose Orono girls have won the last five Class C state titles while his boys will be looking for a three-peat.
Steelman was faced with an intriguing catch-22 at PVCs after that meet was shifted from Friday to Monday due to poor weather. That gave distance runners a shorter recovery time heading into Saturday, but Steelman exhibited dominance in winning both of her individual events decisively.
“You definitely want to be careful because it’s really easy to get excited and overwork yourself,” she said. “We’re being smart, we’re going to taper this week and we’re going to see what we can do on Saturday.”
The fact Steelman and her teammates were racing fast, yet efficiently, was nothing new to Libby.
“It’s easy to see how fit they are, and you can tell they put a lot of work into practice and stuff,” Libby said. “They’re knowledgeable kids.”
Even if Steelman is able to again break the tape in her individual races come Saturday, the 10 team points awarded for a first-place finish will be of more significance than anything else.
“That’s the mindset we have, we definitely work together,” said Steelman, the daughter of Presbyterian College women’s basketball coach and former UMaine associate head coach Todd Steelman.
Classmate Kassidy Dill, another member of Orono’s 4×8 team who is also going to run at the Division I level (North Carolina-Greensboro) in the fall, echoed Steelman’s sentiments.
“We can’t get too comfortable because you never know what can happen,” Dill said. “At practice we talked about how we can’t let up.”
The Orono boys feature one of the top throwers in the country in Stanford-bound Jake Koffman, who won the shot put and discus on Monday, setting two PVC records in the process. Other key athletes include distance runner Jacob Fandel and sprinter Stephen Nelson.
The boys competition will also feature another future Division I athlete in George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill distance man John Hassett, who is coming off a two-win (1,600, 3,200) effort at PVCs that also included a runner-up finish in the 800.
Challengers for Orono include Monmouth Academy and Lisbon on the girls side and Lisbon, Hall-Dale of Farmingdale and Mountain Valley of Rumford for the boys.
In Class B, the MDI boys look to build off their strong performance in winning the PVC large school championships.
The Trojans won the Class B state title last winter and they’ll need outstanding efforts from the likes of Griffin Maristany, Noah Hutchinson and Giovanni McKenzie if they’re going to repeat their success.
The MDI girls feature two top-flight athletes in distance runner Tia Tardy and sprinter Ashley Anderson, who combined for four individual victories at PVCs.
Other local standouts seeking strong performances include Tori Koch of Presque Isle, Emily Perley of Hermon, Grace Day of John Bapst in Bangor, and Oliviah Damboise of Old Town.
Local athletes to watch out for in the Class A competition include Lufkin, Cayd Wortman and Lia Johnson of Brewer, Johann Bradley, Paul Casavant, Christie Woodside, Daija Misler and Wyatt Lord of Hampden and Rihan Smallwood of Bangor.
