AUGUSTA — Cony High School senior Madeline Reny has just a few meets left in her high school career and she is doing her best to make sure she gets the most out of them.
“I’ve been training a lot,” the Rams’ standout said Friday at the Capital City Classic held at Cony. “I’ve been pushing myself harder than I’ve ever pushed myself this season.”
Part of Reny’s ramped up training has been self-motivation, but she also has consistently been strongly challenged throughout the season by outside competition.
“Leila (Alfaro) from Kents Hill has pushed me a lot to get the times that I’m getting, which I’m really thankful for. She’s a really good competitor,” Reny said. “She has helped me get the fastest times I’ve ever run. She’s one to chase, she’s fun to race against and she’s incredible.”
The two have met twice so far this season, with Alfaro edging out Reny by the slimmest of margins in both the 110 and 300 hurdles. Reny said she was expecting to see Alfaro a third time Friday, but the Kents Hill junior was a late scratch.
Without the added competition, Reny — who is just rounding into form after suffering a stress fracture in her ankle last fall — comfortably won both hurdle events. She also took the top spot in the 100 meters and ran the final leg of Cony’s winning 4×100 relay, where she closed a considerable margin to edge Erskine’s Christina Belanger at the finish line.
Reny, along with teammates Alison Laplante, Courtney King and Kaliana Lutz, combined to post a time of 54.26 seconds, and in the process edge Erskine’s Jordan Jowett, Abby Haskell, Kaylee Porter and Belanger by just one-hundredth of a second. King also added an individual win in the 200 and second in the 400.
Even with Reny’s big day, though, it was not enough for the Rams to retain their team title as Lisbon took the girls meet with 124 1/2 points. Cony was second with 112 1/2, followed by Monmouth (103), Maranacook (86) and Erskine (78).
The Greyhounds also took the boys title with 142 1/2 points, followed by Boothbay (108 1/2), Cony (82 3/4), Erskine (73) and Gardiner (57 1/2).
Like Reny, Gardiner senior Treavon Horton has also benefitted from strong competition this season — particularly Friday. Horton took the top spots in the 100 (11.82), 200 (23.91) and 400 (53.01) and did so by narrowly holding off Cony sophomore Brandon Emerson in each instance.
“It was great. I always love to go to Cony,” Horton said. “Brandon Emerson was good competition, he pushed me a lot. It’s really great to have competition to push me harder.”
The Erskine boys had a particularly strong day in the 110 hurdles, as Ethan Dodge, Phoenix Throckmorton and Sam Newcombe took the top three spots, respectively. Throckmorton later went on to place second in the triple jump, while Dodge took the top spot in the 300 hurdles.
“All three of them are just all-around, great athletes,” Erskine coach David Currier said. “It’s good that we’ve got those three guys. They’re pretty good examples for the other kids because with a smaller coaching staff an extra set of eyes and a little bit of knowledge is helpful.”
Oak Hill’s Drew Gamage cleared 5 feet, 10 inches to win the high jump over Hall-Dale’s Jon Whitcomb. Gamage also took the top spots in the long and triple jumps.
The Monmouth girls also had a strong day Friday, as the 4×800 relay team of Shayna Frost, Sammy Grandahl, Ashleigh Hartford and Hannah Kerrigan took home a win, as did teammates Moira Burgess (race walk) and Maddy Amero (javelin).
Grandahl, Hartford, Frost and Madi Bumman also won the second to last event of the meet, the 4×400 relay, while Abby Allen took the top spot in the high jump. For the Monmouth boys, Nick Menice picked up a win in the 800 and Sherman Spear took first in the discus.
Kents Hill’s Anne McKee won both the girls 1,600 and 3,200, while Erskine’s Amelia Bailey was first in the girls discus and teammate Kaylee Porter took the top spot in the girls 800.
Winthrop’s Will Vance was tops in the boys 1,600 and fellow Rambler Sierra Huff finished first in the long jump. Freshman William Green picked up the lone win for the Maranacook boys after clearing 11 feet in the pole vault.
Evan Crawley — 621-5640
ecrawley@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @Evan_Crawley
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