
LEWISTON — It took only minutes for it to become clear Tuesday that the Class A track and field state meet, which had already been delayed three days by weather, would not be completed Tuesday.
Just five jumpers into the girls high jump at Lewiston High’s track facility, at least two competitors had wiped out on their turn toward the bar. It was determined that the surface was not going to be safe — especially with the one-eighth inch spikes mandated at state championship meets. Athletes routinely use quarter-inch spikes during the regular season.
All other events were contested, although darkness was approaching when the girls and boys 1,600-meter relays were finally held. The high jump, which will determine the boys team champion, will be contested at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Edward Little High.
Defending boys champion South Portland leads with 79 points, one ahead of Marshwood and seven ahead of Lewiston (72). South Portland’s Tyler Bryant and Lewiston’s Josia Katroli are tied for the second-best seed at 6 feet, 6 inches, an inch less than Kennebunk’s Theo Pow. Marshwood’s Noah Rogers is tied for 10th at 5-10.
The Bangor girls, with 84.75 points, likely has enough of a cushion over Scarborough (67) to win the championship even without a high jumper. Scarborough would need to finish 1-2 in the high jump to overtake the Rams. Red Storm junior Isabella Harmon is No. 2 seed, and teammate Holland Tate is seeded 12th.
The Portland girls are in third place with 56 points.
Several seniors had stellar days in their final Maine high school meet.
Marshwood’s Andre Clark, Maine’s fastest high school runner ever in the 100 and 200, didn’t lower his personal-best times, but he still impressed, in part because he had his left quadriceps wrapped tightly in an elastic bandage.
Clark won the 100 in 10.70 seconds (which was Maine’s all-time best before he came along). He also anchored the Hawks’ 400 relay team that included Landin Napolitano, Isaiah Perodin and Macaiah Perodin to a meet-record time of 42.93 seconds, then finished his day with his a meet record of 21.69 seconds in the 200. Clark caught and passed Bonny Eagle sophomore Drew Gervais, whose time of 21.91 was also below the previous meet record of 21.96 set in 2021 by Aidan Walcott of Bonny Eagle.
After winning the 100, Clark said he expected to only run the sprint relay, noting that his team had been “training really hard for that event and I want to honor that hard work.” But after the relay win, Clark decided he had enough left for one more race.
“After I won the 4×100, I wasn’t planning on running the 200, but I was like, ‘I’ve got to chase the three golds,'” said Clark, who will compete at the University of Pennsylvania.
Clark plans to skip the New England championships on Saturday to rest and recover for the New Balance Nationals in Philadelphia the following weekend.
On the girls’ side, Scarborough’s Emerson Flaker was another top sprinter nursing an injury. She “tweaked or strained” her hamstring three weeks ago. That kept her out of the 100, which she’d won as a junior. But she dominated in repeating as champion in the 400 and 200, setting a school record of 25.11 seconds in the 200. She started the day by helping the Red Storm finish second in the 3,200 relay, then finished it with a gritty anchor leg in the 1,600 relay, going from third to first on the final lap.

“I just made sure before every one of my races to put a heating pad on my leg and then to get a good warmup in,” Flaker said. “I did feel good. That was my first 200 back from when I hurt my leg.”
Lewiston’s Ryker Paradis got the opportunity to finish his in-state career at his home facility. The meet was scheduled to be held at Brewer Community School on Saturday before weather caused a reshuffling of the schedule. Paradis, headed to the University of Maine, easily won the boys shot put by over 10 feet with a personal-best of 63-10. He also won the discus by a wide margin with a throw of 168-8 and placed third in the javelin at 167-7. Hampden Academy’s Andrew Henaghen won the javelin. Henaghen’s best of 196-6 puts him in the top 50 nationally, according to MileSplit.com.
“I don’t have that same travel fatigue and I don’t have to set up as much as I would have if it was at Brewer,” said Paradis, who is planning to go to Nike Nationals in Eugene, Oregon. “Working with the circles that we have been working with the past four years definitely helps.”
Windham senior Carter Engelman was another double winner. He claimed his first career state championship in the 110 high hurdles, nipping teammate Rory Good at the finish, and then tied with Scarborough’s Wyatt Martin for first in the pole vault with a personal-best vault of 15 feet.

Portland senior Aran Johnson ran an impressive personal-best time of 4:19.21 in the 1,600, tracking down Atticus Merriam of Scarborough on the final lap. Johnson also ran the anchor leg for the winning 3,200 relay team, which just missed a meet record but did qualify for New Balance Nationals with a time of 7:54.46.
There were also some surprise winners who took advantage of struggles by top seniors.
Jenni Flynn of Lewiston won the 100 hurdles. Top seed Tayla Pelletier of Windham, while leading her heat, hit the penultimate hurdle and fell, which caused her to fail to advance to the final.
“I was definitely very nervous before the final. (I told myself this) is my chance. I’ve got to do it,” Flynn said.
In the 300 hurdles, second seed Anneliese Collin of Portland pulled away from top-seed Pelletier in the final 30 meters.
Pelletier did win the triple jump.
In the boys 300 hurdles, Arnaud Sioho of South Portland was hindered by an injury and was unable to repeat as champion. Sioho, who suspects he has a sports hernia, had competed in only three meets this season. Gorham sophomore Antoine Dube was in position to take advantage, challenging Sioho all the way down the home stretch and then getting the edge when Sioho clipped a hurdle.
“Arnaud’s the nicest guy I’ve ever met. I’m sorry for him that he wasn’t able to do his best this season,” Dube said. “But I came out here and competed, and so did everybody else.”
Sioho did show his jumping form. Even though he took only four total jumps, the University of Rhode Island-bound athlete won both the long jump and triple jump.
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