The Raiders traveled to Bates College last Saturday to compete at the State Class B meet. Forty-six teams are in Class B, so it was a big meet. The FA girls finished 22th and the FA boys finished 20th.

Boys: The 4x800 relay was disqualified before they even got on the track. One of the runners was unable to compete and Coach Kevin McDonald was not allowed to enter another athlete in his place. A tough way to start the day as the 4x800 was the first event.

Next up, Jared Chisari was unable to compete in the 55-meter dash due to injury.

“Jared received treatment all week, but just was not able to answer the call when the time came,” Coach McDonald said. “To make matters worse, Jared would have been right in the mix for a state title.”

Max Kummer ran to a fifth-place finish in the 400-meter run, which proved to be the highlight on the boys’ side.

Girls: Gwen Boros finished seventh in the long jump with a 15’6” leap and was disqualified in the 200 meters for stepping on the line.

“Gwen’s time would have placed her fourth, but DQs do not count,” Coach McDonald pointed out.

The 4x200m relay had to scratch as one member came down sick and could not answer the call. Another tough result on the day.

Casey Kneissler threw the shot put 31’0.25” for a seventh-place finish. Megan Hebert had a nice triple jump of 30’9.75” good for 10th place. Jules Stanton raced to 12th place in the two mile in only her second attempt at the event. Jules time was 13:21.98.

In the 400-meters, the format is slower to faster in the heats. Alanceah Waiters was in the first heat with a seed time of 1:07.05.

“This young lady has been working very hard all season. She fought through injury and never stopped believing,” Coach McDonald said.

When she crossed the finish line, the clock read 1:03.60 — good for eighth place and a huge smile.

Abigail Hewes started her day with the anchor leg on the 4x800, more on that latter. Next, she ran to a podium finish in the mile in 5 minutes, 41.20 seconds, good for sixth place. She finished her day with a very nice 800-meters, good for 12th place.

“This was Abigail’s first season of track & field and what a fantastic season it was. The sky is the limit as to where this young lady would like to take her talent,” Coach McDonald said.

The highlight of the meet was the girls 4x800 relay. It was the first event of the meet and the Raiders were in the fast heat.

“I was hoping for a good finish, but one never knows,” Coach McDonald said.

The relay was made up of Jules Stanton, Kirsten Wentworth, Silvia Sanchez and Abigail Hewes, running in that order. Madison McIntyre was the alternate.

“I must say that Maddy was a huge help on the day. She did not get to race, but was our photographer and handled the splits for the distance races,” the coach noted.

Jules got the Raiders off to a great start placing FA just were they wanted to be. Next up was Kirsten and she ran a “gem of a leg” moving the Raiders up in position. She and Jules both ran P.R.s for the distance. Kirsten handed off to Silvia, who ran very well for three laps and then experienced some difficulty, struggling on her last lap, but holding strong. Silvia handed off to Abigail, who ran a 2:33 leg and brought the Raiders home in fifth place with a new school record. The girls ran a 10:40.97 with the old record being 10:53.77.

“This team is made up of three sophomores and one junior. In fact, everyone I have mentioned (in the article) on the girls’ side is not graduating. The future sure looks bright,” Coach McDonald said.