FA boys 4×800 relay finishes 15th at New England championship

Photo courtesy of Foxcroft Academy
FAST STABLE OF PONIES — The Foxcroft Academy boys 4×800 relay team finished in 15th place at the New England indoor track championship on Feb. 28 outside of Boston. Team members, from left, Tobias Hogfeldt, Chandler Rockwell, Gabe Piquette and Cooper Nelson ran the race in 8:24.46 to place 15th out of 31 teams from the six New England states, with the Pony squad having the best time of the five teams from Maine.

By Staff Reporter

ROXBURY CROSSING, Mass. — The Foxcroft Academy boys 4×800 relay team ran to a 15th place finish at the 29th annual New England Interscholastic Indoor Track & Field Championships on Feb. 28 at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center at Roxbury Community College.

Relay team members — in order — sophomore Tobias Hogfeldt, seniors Gabe Piquette and Cooper Nelson and junior Chandler Rockwell combined for a school-record time of 8 minutes, 24.46 seconds to finish 15th out of 31 4×800 squads. The four Ponies had the highest placement among five teams from the state of Maine, as Foxcroft edged Class A Westbrook High School by less than half a second.

The Pony boys 4×800 relay earned a trip to the New England meet by finishing as the runner-up at the Class B championship earlier in the month — and in the process helping the Foxcroft squad finish as the meet’s runner-up. The team’s time of 8:37.17 at the state finals gave the foursome a 26th seeding for the Feb. 28 race, and Hogfeldt, Piquette, Nelson and Rockwell improved the seeding by 11 places by taking nearly 13 seconds off their previous time.

During the season, the four set a high school facility record at the University of Maine’s New Balance Field House. On Jan. 30 , in the last meet before the conference championship, Hogfeldt, Piquette, Rockwell and Nelson combined for a time of 8:28.51, over 15 seconds faster than the previous top mark of 8:43.83 set by Orono High School in December of 2015.

A week later Foxcroft finished in first place in the 4×800 relay standings at the Penobscot Valley Conference/Eastern Maine Indoor Track League Championship. Hogfeldt, senior Paul Birtwistle, Piquette and Rockwell together ran a time of 8:47.22.