View 17 photos

GORHAM — The University of Southern Maine indoor track facility had nearly emptied as Scarborough High senior Isabella Harmon adjusted her helmet before lifting a weighty fiberglass pole toward the ceiling.

Most of the runners, jumpers and throwers had already headed home or to their school buses. The Marathon Sports Elite Meet Invitational, an indoor track meet open to all Maine high school athletes who met the qualifying standards, was all but finished Monday.

Harmon still had work to do. She’d already won the high jump with a season-best height of 5-6, matching Elyannah Briggs of Old Town for the top height in Maine this season. She placed third in the 55-meter hurdles, also with a season-best time.

With two events completed, the 17-year-old 5-foot-5 former gymnast, swimmer and equestrian who will compete at the University of Connecticut was trying to hit another significant mark. The pole vault bar was set at 11 feet. She missed her first attempt but was unflustered.

As in high jump, by this point Harmon was competing only against herself, all of the other competitors having fouled out at much lower heights.

Harmon calmly looked at video taken by first-year assistant coach Conrad Bollinger, discussed the good and bad of the previous attempt, then stayed to herself. She sipped from her water bottle, conserving energy.

“I just find talking to other people gets me out of my mindset, so I keep to myself, and I kind of talk to myself,” Harmon said. “Having a first attempt and knowing what’s off and having the next attempt. I find missing my first attempt kind of helps me out a bit because I can watch the video and I can pinpoint what’s wrong, and usually it’s all cleared up.”

Using a longer pole for the first time this season, Harmon cleared 11 feet on her second attempt. It was a 1-foot improvement over her previous best this season, 11 inches higher than any other Maine girl has gone this winter, and close to her personal best of 11-3. She tried one attempt at 11-4, then called it a day.

A successful day.

“Yeah, it was. I was pretty excited,” Harmon said as she prepared to ice her sore shins.

Bollinger said Harmon has the “grit and guts,” to give her best on every attempt while balancing her hard-charging approach with “grace and composure and poise, to be able to lock in and put it all together.”

While Harmon essentially competed against herself in her two primary events, the meet was designed to provide cross-class, cross-conference competition.

Angela Boisvert, who won the 55 hurdles, said that’s why she and her teammates from Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield looked forward to attending. At their typical regular-season meet, they’re basically “competing against our own team.” At USM, they had the best from the SMAA in their events.

Boisvert lowered her hurdles PR to 8.75 seconds and also improved her long jump by a half-foot, setting a school record while finishing third at 17-0 3/4. Watching Marshwood’s top duo of Anna Jennings (18-1 1/4) and Sydney Leveille (17-3 1/2), Boisvert decided to lengthen her approach.

“Today I tried going back to 90 feet back and it really works,” Boisvert said.

The boys mile featured another type of regular-season rarity: all of the SMAA’s top runners were in the same race.

Marshwood’s Henri Rivard used an impressive last-lap kick (as he later did in the 800) to race past Deering’s Ellis Wood. Rivard’s winning time of 4 minutes, 19.68 seconds was nine seconds faster than his seed time. Rivard said being able to “compete with the best,” and use his kick for the win proved his speed workouts were paying dividends.

Wood was two seconds faster than his previous best at 4:21.06. Third-place Ryan Bolduc of Thornton Academy and fourth-place Atticus Merriam of Scarborough also lowered their times.

“It’s a really good chance to prove where your fitness is at and to really push yourself,” Wood said. “It was really fun to be able to race against such good competition and to be able to put down a fast time.”