Maine news, sports, weather from Waterville Morning Sentinel

SIDELINES

Historic day for Waterville girls on track

By Travis Lazarczyk tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

Dominant. Historic. Eye-popping.

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POWERING UP: Waterville’s Natasha Griffith won the shot put with a throw of 38 feet, 63⁄4 inches Saturday at the Class B state track and field championships in Windham.

Maine Sunday Telegram photo by Derek Davis

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Look at the score of the Class B girls track and field state championship meet and you pick the adjective to describe the day put in by the Waterville Senior High School team.

Waterville won the meet with 168 points. The Purple Panthers' nearest competition was York. The Wildcats scored 94 points, which in a normal year wouldn't be too shabby. Some years, 94 points might even win you a state championship.

This year, 94 points put York a distant second, and the Wildcats were the only team within 100 points of the Panthers. This is the equivalent to a 50-0 football score. This is a 20-0 baseball or softball game. This is almost unheard of. Track results are measured in inches and milliseconds. Scores are generally close. With hundreds of participating athletes, track meets are by nature close contests. Blowouts need not apply.

There were 646 points available. The Panthers claimed 26 percent of all the points on the board. There are 19 events in a track and field meet. Waterville scored in 15 of them.

It's the fourth consecutive outdoor track and field state championship for the Waterville girls. Is it their best team of the talented bunch? The numbers certainly say so.

In 2009, Waterville beat runner-up York by 10 points, 119-109. In 2008, the Panthers won the state title by one and a half points, edging Greely 98 1/2-97. In 2007, the Panthers had it a little easier, scoring 99 points to York's 85. That same year, the Waterville boys pulled off the rare blowout, scoring 99 points to Hampden's 50.

Waterville's state championship win comes off a commanding win at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference meet last week. The Panthers scored 211 1/2 points, beating runner up Winslow by 145 1/2 points. That meet was over at the halfway point.

This was Waterville's fifth state championship in nine years (the Panthers won the Class A title in 2002). Now it's a self-propelling, hard working championship machine. Lose a Shelby Tuttle to graduation? Lynn Fleming steps right in.

Fleming, by the way, scored 28 points Saturday in her individual events. That's more than 19 of the 26 teams that participated in the meet. Add the 10 points Fleming helped Waterville win in the 4x100 relay, and she scored more than every team but York and Greely.

The Panthers don't go into a meet hoping to win. They go in knowing they've put in the practice time and expect to have success. If you've never seen Waterville track and field coach Ian WIlson at work, his style might appear hostile, even cantankerous. Wilson is neither of those things. He's a coach who knows athletes can be pushed, want to be pushed, when they see the results are greatness.

You try and think of another Maine high school team, in any sport, that dominated a season like this Waterville girls track and field team did. One of the Valley High School boys basketball teams that won six straight Class D state titles, maybe? One of the eight consecutive Skowhegan field hockey teams that won a state championship? One of the Mt. Blue ski teams?

The 1998 Winslow field hockey team didn't give up a goal the entire season. That's about as supreme as this Waterville track and field team was on Saturday.

Dominant? Historic? Eye-popping?

Let's just shake our heads and call it all of the above.

Travis Lazarczyk -- 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com