Unbeaten George Stevens boys basketball team tops Piscataquis

By Ernie Clark
Staff Writer

ORONO — The Foxcroft Academy boys more than doubled the point total of runner-up Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln to finish first out of five schools at a Jan. 9 Eastern Maine Indoor Track League/Penobscot Valley Conference meet at the University of Maine. The Ponies finished with a score of 107 points, helped by seven first-place efforts.

The first top performance came in the 4×800 relay as sophomore Tobias Hogfeldt, senior Gabe Piquette, junior Chandler Rockwell and senior Cooper Nelson combined for a time of 8 minutes, 40.21 seconds. Piquette would win the mile in a time of 5:13.67; Rockwell’s time of 55.15 seconds in the 400 was the day’s best; and Nelson won both the 800 and two-mile with respective times of 2:11.11 and 10:50.03.

Senior Nathaniel Church won a pair of sprints. He came in first in the 55 at 6.89 seconds, and his 24.67 seconds in the 200 was tops at the meet. He also came in second in the long jump with a leap of 17 feet, 6.75 inches.

Piquette finished second in the 800 at 2:20.43, senior Paul Birtwistle was the runner-up in the 400 at 59.19 seconds as was junior Evan Chadbourne in the 200 at 25.23 seconds.

Third-place performances were had by Hogfeldt in the 800 at 2:20.54; junior Jason Eubanks in the 200 at 25.88 seconds; Chadbourne in the long jump at 16-10; and the 4×200 relay (senior Joon Yeob Kim, junior Caleb Buerger, freshman Noah Contreras and Eubanks) at 1:54.80.

Chadbourne came in fourth in the 55 at 7.10 seconds, and right behind was senior Blaine Robinson in fifth place at 7.12 seconds. Junior Ethan Poland placed fourth in the mile with a time of 6:06.72.

In the girls’ meet, Foxcroft picked up 34 points to finish fourth in a field of five teams.

Junior Erika Chadbourne placed second in the 200 at 31.61 seconds, and senior Desirae Brawn was the meet runner-up in the shot put at a distance of 27-04.25. Chadbourne, sophomore Jordan Thomas, freshman Hannah Sprecher and Brawn combined for a time of 2:24.03 to finish second in the 4×200 relay standings.

Junior Emily Sprecher came in third in the 200 at 32.62 seconds and sophomore Virginia Macomber placed third at two miles with a time of 16:36.43. Thomas was third in the mile and right behind were teammates freshman Daniela Zhang-Parada and junior Sujeong Kim. The third, fourth and fifth place runners had times of 6:48.60, 8:00.21 and 8:05.74.

Rounding out the Pony scoring was Chadbourne’s fifth-place long jump finish at 12-05.75.