AUGUSTA — Transferring from one school to another midway through high school can take its toll on student-athletes.
For Cony High School senior Madeline Reny, however, it turned out to be the best thing for her track career.
GIRLS ALL-AREA OUTDOOR TRACK TEAM
100 — Maddy Price, Skowhegan
200 — Lydia Roy, Waterville
400 — Lydia Roy, Waterville
800 — Kiana Letourneau, Lawrence
1,600 — Anne Guadalupi, Cony
3,200 — Anne McKee, Kents Hill
100 hurdles — Erin Martin, Nokomis
300 hurdles — Abby Weigang, Lawrence
4×100 — Skowhegan (Leah Savage, Jaycee Cushman, Caitlin Cushman, Maddy Price)
4×400 — Waterville (Kellie Bolduc, Lydia Roy, Sarah Shoulta, Rebecca Beringer)
4×800 — Cony (Anne Guadalupi, Lindsay Watts, Tara Jorgensen, Courtney King)
Long jump — Paige Smith, Winslow
Triple jump — Kellie Bolduc, Waterville
High jump — Alison Linscott, Waterville
Pole vault — Taylor Lenentine, Messalonskee
Shot put — Kaite Hughes, MCI
Discus — Shen Black, Carrabec
Javelin — Maddie Amero, Monmouth
Race walk — Liz Larsen, Messalonskee
“When I transferred it opened up a completely different door in the track world for me,” Reny said. “Cony has an amazing track program, great coaches and teammates. It’s a huge family, which makes that much of a difference.”
Reny noted that it was nothing against the smaller program at Gardiner — where she spent her first two years of high school — but it was not until she joined the much larger Cony team that she started to focus more on the sport.
“I just started religiously running,” She said. “I started getting more interested and wanting to do better. My coaches definitely helped me with that.”
Reny capped off a standout career with another strong showing at the Class A girls outdoor track and field championships held at Mt. Ararat High School. She placed second behind Lawrence’s Abby Weigang in the 300-meter hurdles and took fifth in the 100 hurdles. She also ran the fastest leg of the Rams’ seventh-place 4×400 relay.
For her efforts this spring, Reny has been named the 2015 Kennebec Journal Girls Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year. Monmouth freshman Maddy Amero and Erskine freshman Kaylee Porter were also considered.
“It’s always been fun to watch her compete,” Cony girls outdoor track coach Jon Millett said. “If you ever watch her face there’s a point where something just clicks and she just goes. Sometimes you can visibly see a facial twitch or expression where she’s putting it into fifth gear and going for it. That’s just the true competitor in her.”
Reny thrived on competition this past season, and she certainly saw plenty of it.
She had a number of races in the first half of the season in the 100 and 300 hurdles against Kents Hill’s Leila Alfaro that were decided by, in most cases, fractions of seconds. Alfaro went on to place third in 100 hurdles and second in the 300 hurdles at the Class C championships.
Reny once again faced tall orders — both literally and figuratively — at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference and Class A championships, competing against the 6-foot-tall Weigang and Nokomis’ Erin Martin, who has more than a few inches on Reny.
“I had tons of competition, which I was super thankful for. They truly pushed me to get times that I got,” Reny said. “It was just awesome to have someone just a little in front of me that I could chase. It made me have a goal.”
Reny will be looking to keep chasing — and catching — her competitors beginning in the fall, as she intends to run cross country, indoor and outdoor track at the University of Southern Maine.
While Cony will certainly miss Reny’s efforts next season, Millett had little doubt she will continue to succeed with the Huskies.
“It’s going to be a pair of shoes that don’t get filled easily,” Millett said. “She’ll always be part of the Cony family and we will miss her, but she will continue on with her life and she will be successful. She’s proven she can set goals and achieve them.”
Evan Crawley — 621-5640
ecrawley@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @Evan_Crawley
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