Scarborough Girls, South Portland Boys Capture Class A Track Titles in Bangor

The Class A state championships came down to the very last event on Saturday at Cameron Stadium in Bangor, where the Scarborough girls needed every point they could muster to reclaim the team title they had lost a year ago.

Scarborough finished with 91.33 points, narrowly edging Falmouth at 87.33 and Hampden Academy at 74.5. The Red Storm trailed Falmouth by two points heading into the final event, the discus, but Lena Asali's third-place finish in that event pushed Scarborough over the top.

Coach Denise Curry credited her team's collective effort for the championship. "It was, really, a team effort. It really was. They knew it was going to be tight," Curry said. "The girls were saying, especially Laurel (Driscoll), 'What place do I have to be in for points?' … Everybody knew they had to run their best today."

Scarborough's biggest contributor was Isabella Harmon, who won the high jump at 5 feet, 2 inches and the 100-meter hurdles in 15.49 seconds, while also placing second in the pole vault and fifth in the long jump. The senior, competing in her fourth state meet, acknowledged the pressure she feels as her team's top scorer.

"There's a lot of nerves, knowing every point matters," Harmon said. "I do get very anxious about … knowing I have to score a lot of points, and if I don't, it's a big hit. But this is my fourth year, I'm definitely getting used to it."

While Harmon was Scarborough's only individual winner, the Red Storm's depth proved decisive. Driscoll turned in a strong all-around performance, finishing second in the 800, third in the 1,600 and fourth in the 3,200. Freshman Clara Humble added a second-place finish in the high jump, and eight individuals along with two relay teams contributed points.

Falmouth came close thanks to victories from Georgia Moon in the 3,200 (10:42.54) and Cassidy Bishop in the 1,600 race walk (8:42.12), plus wins from both the 1,600 and 3,200 relay squads.

Three athletes won two events apiece in the girls' competition. Harmon was joined by Marshwood's Anna Jennings, who captured the long jump at 18 feet, 7 inches and the 400 in 58.03 seconds, and Hampden Academy's Addison Elliott, who won the 800 in 2:17.10 and the 1,600 in 4:54.75.

Jennings' long jump set a new Class A meet record, surpassing the previous mark of 18-5½ set by Gorham's Alyvia Caruso in 2022. The accomplishment was made sweeter by the presence of her Marshwood teammate Sydney Leveille, who had set an SMAA record in the same event the previous week.

"I ran straight to her," Jennings said. "She's always the person I'm looking for when anything big happens. I'm so excited she was right there with me."

Elliott, the fourth seed in the 1,600, outran a talented field that included Driscoll, Moon and Paige Alexander of Cheverus/Waynflete. "It's a bit nerve-wracking, racing with such fast girls," Elliott said, "but at the same time it helps pull me along. It's good. It's motivating."

The closest finish of the day came in the 300 hurdles, where Bangor's Taylor Scales crossed the line in 45.843 seconds, just seven-thousandths of a second ahead of Falmouth's Hadley Perry. Scales, who had been carried off the track in pain after a preliminary heat of the 100 hurdles due to a foot sprain, refused to let the injury end her day.

"I could hear her coming up on me," Scales said. "The feeling of seeing my foot cross the finish line before hers, knowing she's so fast, it's awesome." Her philosophy summed up the day: "Just because it hurts doesn't mean you have to be done."

Boys Meet

The boys' competition lacked the same final-event drama, as South Portland cruised to its third straight Class A title with 98 points. Portland finished second with 69.75 and Lewiston third with 60.

The Red Riots were powered by individual victories from Devin Berry in the 110 hurdles (15.26), Anthony Nielsen in the 800 (1:58.21) and Bossay Ditanduka in the long jump (22-4¼). They also got runner-up finishes from Ambrosio Mputu (100), Michael Lawlor (800), Ditanduka (200) and the 400 relay, along with third-place efforts from Christiano Jundo (300 hurdles) and Jared LaRose (high jump).

Coach Dave Kahill was proud of how much his team had grown from a year ago. "It's just really incredible about how much they improved," he said. "They came together to reach their potential. You always want to reach your potential, whether it's for a championship or not." His squad had returned only 15.33 individual points from the previous season.

Berry said the Red Riots never take success for granted. "A lot of people will say 'Oh, South Portland's just going to win it,' but we like to tell ourselves you never know," he said. "We have a lot of depth, and that's great for us. It gives us a lot of competition in practice, it gives us a teamwork aspect."

Bonny Eagle's Drew Gervais was the only boy to win two individual events, taking the 100 in 11.07 and the 200 in 21.84, beating Ditanduka by two-hundredths of a second in the latter after finishing second in both events in 2025. "I didn't really like waiting around," Gervais said. "I convinced myself (in) outdoor season, I'm going to move up. I got my shot and I made big things happen. I'm just blessed to have great competition."

Several top seeds fell on the boys' side. Deering's Abdulkadir Munye upset Hampden's Noah Madden in the 300 hurdles (39.34), Brunswick's Ethan Patterson edged defending champion Ali Carter of Falmouth in the 400 (49.43), and Lewiston's Larson Stone cleared 6-4 in the high jump for the first time all season to beat Portland's Cordell Jones.

Stone had been thinking about the matchup with Jones for months. "My heart rate was, like, 150 beats a minute. It was just a (1-on-1), Cordell Jones and I," Stone said. "I was thinking about going against him the whole season. (I thought) 'I'll try to catch up to him,' but I didn't know how possible it was."

Other boys' winners included Jake Bassi of Bangor in the discus (173-9), Cordell Jones of Portland in the javelin (162-0), Thomas LeBlanc of Edward Little in the pole vault (15-0), Nsungui Mankatu of Lewiston in the triple jump (45-8¾), Atticus Merriam of Scarborough in the 1,600 (4:16.58), Emmett Milliken of Camden Hills in the shot put (54-4¼), Ian Britt of Mt. Ararat in the 1,600 race walk (6:24.55) and Ellis Wood of Deering in the 3,200 (9:22.40). Brunswick won the 400 relay, Gorham took the 1,600 relay, and Portland claimed the 3,200 relay.

The full list of girls' event winners also included Siena Carbone of Massabesic in the javelin (101-3), Liz Green of Brunswick in the discus (118-3), Alexis Hamel of Hampden in the pole vault (11-0), Annabelle Harris of Windham in the shot put (35-10½), Sydney Leveille of Marshwood in the triple jump (37-4), Elliette Musica of Brunswick in the 100 (12.79) and Macey Weisberg of Cheverus/Waynflete in the 200 (26.02). Hampden Academy won the 400 relay in 49.89.