Arnaud Sioho wins four events to carry the Red Riots to their first boys' state championship in 22 years, and Emerson Flaker leads the Red Storm to the girls' crown by sweeping the sprints.
Written by Steve Craig.
Published June 1, 2024 in the Portland Press Herald. Read the full article here.
SACO — As they did in the indoor track season, the South Portland High boys combined the brilliance of Arnaud Sioho with significant improvements by several other athletes to win their first Class A outdoor track and field team championship since 2002.
Sioho, a junior, won four events Saturday at Thornton Academy – the long jump, triple jump and 110- and 300-meter hurdles. He entered as the top seed in each event and set meet records in both jumping events and a ran a personal-best in the 300 hurdles.
Sioho became just the third boy to win four individual events at the Class A meet, according to Thornton Coach George Mendros, and the first since Sam Rusak of Scarborough did it in 2016. Sioho was coming off a four-win day at the SMAA championships, a meet where he set four school records and established the best marks in Maine this season, but tweaked his right upper leg muscles just a bit.
South Portland’s Arnaud Sioho clears a hurdle in the 300 hurdles. Sioho won the event, as well as three others, helping the Red Riots claim the team title. Derek Davis / Portland Press Herald
“I was a little nervous coming into this meet and talked to my coach about it,” Sioho said. “He said it was OK to be nervous, just to come out and embrace it. It was probably because I was seeded first in all four events that I was nervous and thinking something could go wrong.”
Instead, everything went right, starting from the first event, when Sioho posted a meet-record long jump of 23 feet, 2 1/4 inches before defending champ and eventual runner-up Billy Albertson of Skowhegan had a clean jump. Albertson’s best was 22-8. The previous record was 23-0 1/2 set in 2021 by Frank Morang of Cheverus.
Then came a clean tour of the 110 hurdles in 14.7 seconds, followed by a personal-best time of 38.67 in the 300 hurdles. Sioho finished his day with a meet-record 47-2 triple jump, breaking the mark of 46-5 set in 1991 by South Portland’s Scott Sawyer.