Jordhan Levine had a nearly perfect end to his high school track and field career.

At the 2014 Class B outdoor track championships in Brewer, Levine won three events — the 110-meter hurdles, the 300 hurdles and the triple jump — and finished second in another (long jump) to grab 38 out of a possible 40 individual points to help the Waterville boys track and field team win its second consecutive state title.

Six years removed from it, Levine, 24, still wished he had the four victories that day.

“I was upset I didn’t get 40 to be honest,” Levine said.

Levine cruised to the triple jump title with a mark of 44 feet — nearly three feet more than second-place finisher Marcus Riley of Belfast. Levine finished the 300 hurdles in 40.54 seconds, over two seconds quicker than Matthew Hanna of Mt. Desert Island. But the memorable race of that day was the 110 hurdles, as Levine’s top opponent was his own teammate in Troy Gurski. Both finished with a time of 15.46, but Levine was just 1,000th of a second quicker.

“I knew it definitely was going to be close,” Levine said. “Troy and I practiced together every day in hurdles, so I knew Troy and I would be really close. The main goal going into that race was to get (places) 1-2. He and I just needed to placed 1-2 in the event, and as close as the times came, that was just by chance and by luck. That was so crazy, I remember looking up and seeing the times and Troy and I — we have a picture of it, it’s a really funny picture that I have — our reactions of it. It’s really crazy and incredible that it came that close. It didn’t matter who placed one or two, just the fact that he and I got one and two was the important thing. It was definitely one of the closer and more competitive races I competed in.”

Levine finished second in the long jump behind Riley, who went 21-8. Levine junmped 20-10. Still, Levine accounted for 38 of Waterville’s 92.5 points, which at the time tied a school record for most individual points in a state meet.

“It’s hard to imagine how he could have done more,” former Waterville track coach (and current Thomas College coach) Ian Wilson said in 2014. “I guess we could have asked him for 40 (points), but I’ll take the 38. You take away that one kid, we don’t win the meet. We’re not even close.”

“I was just really happy that we ended up winning,” Levine said. “It was my senior year. I believe it was Wilson’s last year as well, so to go out on top and give him that was something that was memorable and I’ll remember for a while. It was good to give him that and to go out on top like that. As hard as we train all year and as much work as you put into a season, it really doesn’t start in outdoor, it starts in indoor, and you just kind of roll through it into outdoor season as well, and you just take what you learned in indoor and bring it with you in outdoor and just keep going. To put up that kind of performance, it was definitely memorable. Our boys team was incredible, we had athletes all over our team on the boys side. Just to put it all together was incredible. As a senior, putting it all together, I wasn’t quite sure where I was going in college, so it was great to go. The 38 points was nice, but I won’t lie, I definitely wanted to get a clean sweep.”

It was a breakthrough performance at the right time for Levine. During his junior year, he had finished first in the triple jump and as a member of the 4×400 relay team, and second in both hurdles events. Just months earlier at the Class B indoor track championships in Lewiston, Levine finished second to Gurski in both the 55 hurdles and the triple jump.

But at the outdoor championships, Levine was feeling confident.

“To be honest, yeah, I was pretty confident going into the meet,” Levine said. “We always trained really well in practices, trained really hard and always worked our butts off during practice. We didn’t go into those meets without having confidence and being assured that things would go well during the meets and always performed with confidence. That’s always one thing that Wilson ingrained in you, you practiced hard, you’ll do well in the meets.”

Levine first started track in junior high, as a way to stay in shape for football. His friends convinced him to stay with track entering high school.

“I remember friends getting together and convincing me to go out my freshman year to do track, and at that point, Wilson never let me go,” Levine said.

Levine was also a four-year member of the football team, a family tradition started by his father, Richard Levine, who also played for Waterville. Jordhan Levine played wide receiver and defensive back during his time with the Purple Panthers.

“We dropped down to Class C my senior year,” Levine said. “In my opinion — and I don’t care if Winslow knows it, I tell them anyway — we would have won states that year, we would have beaten them and gone on to states that year. Football was my first love, it was my passion. My dad and I always watched the Pats growing up, and that’s where I grew my passion for football.”

After high school, Levine started college at the University of Southern Maine, where he was a member of the track team. He had a strong freshman season, particularly in indoor. He recorded a fourth-place finish in the triple jump at the Maine State Indoor Championships. It would be Levine’s final year in the sport. He eventually transferred to Husson University in Bangor.

“A couple personal things kind of happened,” Levine said. “I ended up transferring out and going to Husson and I just kind of focused on school. I did try to go out for football again, but I pulled both of my hamstrings that season. At that point, I only had a year left, so I just said ‘let’s just get this degree and get out.’ I do regret not sticking with sports more in college, to be honest. I wish I tried a little bit more after my freshman season at USM.”

Levine earned his business degree from Husson last summer, and now works for Kennebec Savings Bank in Waterville. He’s also thinking about getting into coaching.

“I haven’t ruled out getting back into sports with coaching, I’d love to still be (in sports),” Levine said. “Sports are still a big part of my life.”

 

Dave Dyer — 621-5640

ddyer@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @Dave_Dyer

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