BATH — Maddy Price and Leah Savage stood in the middle of the football field last Saturday at McMann Field as the blistering sun bounced off the artificial turf.
The Skowhegan Area High School teammates had just finished up the last of their events at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference outdoor track and field championships and were posed a question.
Do you feed off each other’s success?
“Yes,” the two resoundingly answered in stereo before Price, a senior, broke into a story from last indoor track season.
Neither can remember the exact meet, but both agree on the result. Price had just set the school record in the triple jump but only held onto sole possession of it for a few minutes.
“Literally, it was the jump after me (Savage) tied it,” Price said. “It was crazy.”
Price, who will continue her track career at Fairleigh Dickinson University in the fall, did not wait long to reclaim sole possession of the record, though.
“I only had (the record) for like a week,” Savage, a sophomore, said.
Amongst the top athletes, competition often brings out the best in them. That has been the case for Price and Savage, who have had the luxury of competing against each other at both practices and meets. They, however, are hardly the only ones who have fed off each other’s success.
Cony junior Anne Guadalupi picked up first and third place results in the 1,600- and 800-meter runs, respectively, at the KVAC meet, but prior to that teamed with senior Lindsay Watts, sophomore Tara Jorgensen and freshman Talia Jorgensen to win the 4×800 relay by 41-hundredths of a second over the team from Brunswick.
Each member of the quartet has similar abilities in the middle distance events, which Guadalupi said has been particularly important in practices.
“It’s so nice to have them at practice,” Guadalupi said. “It’s so hard to go alone and I do practice with some of the boys, too, but it’s a great team.
“It’s nice that we can compete. It’s a friendly competition, like always between all runners, but it’s definitely nice.”
It has been a similar situation for the Messalonskee boys team with its middle distance and distance runners. Seniors Carson Bessey and Natale Cardillo teamed with juniors Dan Turner and Zach Hoyle to kick off the KVAC A meet Saturday with a win in the 4×800 relay by a little more than 14 seconds over Cony, a precursor of what was still to come.
Junior Owen Concaugh and Cardillo finished second and seventh, respectively, in the 1,600, while Hoyle and Bessey were second and sixth, respectively, in the 400. Concaugh and Hoyle then went one-two in the 800, while Hoyle placed fourth in the 3,200. Concaugh would have competed in the two-mile, but with the KVAC A title already well secured, he scratched from the event.
Concaugh is quick to point out, though, it’s not just the middle distance and distance runners that drove Messalonskee to the conference championship, as the Eagles covered the gamut of events well.
“You can credit our coaches for that,” Concaugh said. “They’ve done a really good job with everybody. We’ve got a lot of talent in every aspect of track and it’s been really good.”
Evan Crawley — 621-5640
ecrawley@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @Evan_Crawley
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Comments are no longer available on this story