Published June 11, 2025 by Steve Craig, Portland Press Herald.
The Red Riots got the third-place finish they needed from Tyler Bryant in the high jump to clinch the crown over Lewiston.
AUBURN — It took an extra day, and most importantly a third-place finish in the high jump from Tyler Bryant, but the wait was worth it for the South Portland High boys track and field team.
Bryant’s finish in the high jump gave the Red Riots enough points to hold off Lewiston for their second consecutive Class A championship.
“Man, it’s fantastic because of the way we’ve done it, both last year and this year, with a complete team effort,” said South Portland coach David Kahill. “We scored in a lot of different events and it’s just contributions from a lot of guys.”
The meet was originally scheduled for Saturday in Brewer, but was postponed to Tuesday and relocated to Lewiston High. It was completed Wednesday with the girls and boys high jump held at Edward Little High in Auburn because Lewiston’s jumping area was deemed unsafe early in Tuesday’s competition.
South Portland entered the high jump with a one-point lead over Marshwood and a seven-point cushion over Lewiston. With Bryant and Lewiston’s Josia Katroli tied for second in seeding behind Kennebunk’s Theo Pow, Bryant’s task was to finish within four places of Katroli.
Bryant earned six points with his third-place finish with a jump of 6 feet, 4 inches. Katroli, the indoor state champion and one of the top all-around competitors in the state, won his first outdoor title and scored 10 points by clearing 6-6. Pow was second, clearing 6-4 with fewer misses than Bryant.
Katroli was happy to have the high jump be a standalone event.
“It was fun for me because I had three events yesterday, so it was truly a relief for me because I had a day to rest my legs,” Katroli said. “I’m just thankful that I came out with the win today.”
Bryant said getting a height of 6-2 or better was something “I’ve been able to do pretty consistently throughout the season, so I knew I just needed to recreate what I’ve done at any other meet. So just focus on it being like anything else and it wouldn’t be that stressful.”
The final team totals were South Portland in first with 85.67 points, Lewiston in second with 82 and Marshwood in third with 81.33.
When Katroli, Pow, Bryant and fourth-place finisher Cordell Jones of Portland were the only jumpers who cleared 6-2, the team title had been decided.
There was less drama in the girls team race. Technically, Scarborough could have caught Bangor if it had a 1-2 finish and Bangor was shut out.
Scarborough’s Isabella Harmon won with a height of 5-6 after being the only girl over 5-4, but Scarborough’s other competitor, Holland Tate, who was seeded 12th, did not place. Meanwhile, Bangor’s Gwen Bushnell had a season-best jump of 5-0 to earn 3.5 points for her team.
Bangor finished with 88.25 points to win its fourth outdoor title in the last five years (along with four of the last five indoor crowns). Scarborough, the defending champion, finished with 77 points, and Portland and Brunswick tied for third with 56 points.
On Edward Little’s 2-year-old track surface, which has a nice tacky look that provided exceptional grip, 13 girls cleared 5 feet. Only Harmon, runner-up Tayla Pelletier of Windham and defending champion Lisi Palmer of Brunswick were able to get over the next height of 5-2, and Harmon was the only one who cleared 5-4, doing it on her second attempt.
The Scarborough junior then went over 5-6 for an outdoor season-best and made a good bid at 5-8. It was a redemption effort in a way. Harmon failed to score in the pole vault on Tuesday, an event in which she was the top seed by a significant measure.
“The track felt really nice and really good weather, so I felt my legs were going to be pretty good,” Harmon said. “I was very upset about (the pole vault), so I took that anger and put it into this to get some higher marks, and I guess it worked.”