Proud to support Varsity Maine All-Region players and teams.

Hammond Lumber Company serves contractors, homeowners and DIYers from 34 locations across Maine and New Hampshire. hammondlumber.com

Among her many talents, Isabella Harmon is known for her speed. But what she did to reach the starting line in one of her biggest races this year took a different kind of hustle.

Harmon, a Scarborough High senior, had just cleared 10 feet, 6 inches to win the pole vault at the Southwestern Maine Activities Association indoor track championships on Feb. 7. Immediately after, Harmon had to be on the track to compete in the 55-meter hurdles.

“She had to take her helmet off, she had to run over and change her spikes, and then she had to be on the line to run,” said Scarborough coach Denise Curry. “It had to be a minute, probably, and then she goes and wins that race, too.”

Whatever the event, winning was simply what Harmon did throughout the 2025-26 season for the state champion Red Storm. Dominant on the track and in the field, she is the Varsity Maine Girls Indoor Track Athlete of the Year.

Going into the season, there was little doubt Harmon was one of the state’s top athletes. She was the defending Class A and SMAA indoor champion in both the high jump and pole vault, as well as the state’s top returner in the hurdles.

Harmon delivered in those events all year, but especially on the championship stage. Her victories in the pole vault and hurdles (8.77) at SMAAs followed a personal record of 5-8 to win the high jump. At states, she won the hurdles in 8.61, cleared 11 feet in the pole vault and leaped 5-6 in the high jump to take home three titles.

“I just really wanted to take my momentum from last year’s indoor season and bring it into this season,” said Harmon, a University of Connecticut track and field commit. “I’m really happy with this season; I got a lot of PRs.”

Harmon is most proud of her high jump success. Her 5-8 at SMAAs was the highest by any Maine girls jumper — indoor or outdoor — since Westbrook’s Nyagoa Bayak (6-0) in 2019. She placed third in the event at New Englands (5-7).

“It’s hard for me to PR in high jump because just a small margin makes such a big difference,” Harmon said. “I went quite a while without PR-ing in the high jump — from eighth grade to junior year — so after getting my last PR last year, it was great to do it again.”

Just as Windham coach Jeff Riddle did with Tayla Pelletier a year ago, Curry referred to Harmon as a “Swiss Army Knife” because of her versatility. Strong flexibility stemming from a gymnastics background helped Harmon excel at clearing high jump and pole vault bars.

Harmon scoring 30 points at SMAAs and states gave the Red Storm enough of an advantage on its own. Add in major points from University of New Hampshire commit Laurel Driscoll in distance events and state and conference shot put titles by Vera DiSotto, and Scarborough was unstoppable.

“We wanted to win the state championship, and if you take (Harmon and Driscoll) alone, we finish fourth,” Curry said. “They’re dedicated, they put all the work in, and they listen most of the time. To have two top athletes that are both going to go D-I, that’s pretty exciting.” 

Harmon did it all despite battling injuries and dealing with a college recruiting process that she said weighed on her. Now she has shifted her attention to outdoor track and field, where she hopes to defend her Class A high jump title and reclaim the pole vault crown after being dethroned last year.

“I’m just looking forward to being outside again,” Harmon said. “I’m probably a bigger fan of outdoor meets, even though the weather sometimes isn’t nice. It’s great after being inside all winter.”

High school sports coverage is proudly supported by Maine State Credit Union.