Brunswick's David Slovenski was one of 27 athletes honored this afternoon at the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram's All-Sports Awards Ceremony in Portland.

Slovenski, the boys indoor track MVP, arrived in Maine this morning, a day after winning the national championship in the pole vault (16 feet 4.5 inches). Slovenski traveled from Greensboro, N.C. to Baltimore on Saturday, then flew from Baltimore to Manchester, N.H., this morning and arrived just in time for the banquet. Slovenski beat Carlin Dubay, the wrestling MVP, whose family drove from Caribou.

David Slovenski of Brunswick High has been named the 2007-2008 Gatorade boys track and field athlete of the year in Maine.

Slovenski set the New England record of 16 feet, 9 inches in the pole vault and won the Class A championship with a height of 16 feet. Slovenski has the sixth-best boys pole vault mark in the nation.

He will compete at Princeton next season.

Greely’s Becky O’Brien has been named the 2007-2008 Gatorade Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year for Maine.

O’Brien is a finalist for the national award, which will be announced later this month. O’Brien won Class B championships this spring in the shot put, javelin and discus and won the New England championships in the shot put and discus. O’Brien holds the nation’s top mark this spring of 51 feet, 6 1/2 inches in the shot put. She will compete this weekend at the Nike Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro, N.C. and at the USATF Junior Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Columbus, Ohio.

O’Brien will compete at the University of North Carolina next season.

For Greely's Becky O'Brien, the butterflies don't come at the meet, they come before the meet.

"It's always in the car ride," said O'Brien, who set New England records in the girls shot put and discus Saturday at Thornton Academy. "As far as getting to the meet, I go there and I know I have a job to do. But when I got to the Saco exit, I could feel it in my stomach."

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Noble's Anthony Stanton won the New England championship in the boys high jump less than two years after he first came out for the Knights' track program.

"It takes a lot of practice, a lot of learning and a lot of teaching," Stanton said. "The key to it is how you prepare for a meet."

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For the past four years it seems as if Messalonskee's Jesse Labreck has dominated Class A track, amassing all of the Eagles points by herself at state championship meets.

But all those times you thought Labreck's feats were pretty amazing, a high schooler in Texas singlehandedly won the Class 1A title this weekend in Austin. Bonnie Richardson earned 42 points in the 100, 200, high jump, long jump and discus to win the state team title for Rochelle High School, about 140 miles northwest of Austin.

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Consider this. We've been pretty lucky to have warm weather over the past few days, but as Maine is getting into full stride in its spring sports season, the warmer-weather states are closing their seasons. Cases in point – Florida held its state track championships last weekend, while Texas holds its outdoor track championships this weekend.

Which leads me to a point.

According to Dyestat.com, Zakeya Stinson of Miami, Fla., currently has the nation's top mark of 49 feet, 7.5 inches in the girls shot put for the 2008 outdoor track season.

Greely's Becky O'Brien finished with the nation's second best indoor mark (51-5) in the shot put and won the event last week (47-11) in a four-team outdoor meet at Wells. She still has nearly a month for improvement – the state track championships are scheduled for June 7.

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