Breaking a Record

By Crissy Lewis

How easy is it to break a school record? Apparently for Tyler Pelletier, at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School (OHCHS) it was pretty easy. Pelletier just beat the school’s record for race-walking, and he is going to be competing in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference (KVAC) and States.

Race-walking is a foot race, obviously, but it’s different than running. When you are race-walking you need to make sure you always have one foot on the ground, unlike running where that doesn’t matter.  Race walking can be a little uncomfortable because “you have to push up with your heel,” Pelletier says, and after awhile your shins can start hurting.

Pelletier joined the track team when he was in 7^th grade. That year he began race-walking also. After that year, he decided to drop race-walking and concentrate more on the other events he was in. In his sophomore year he picked up the event again and made it to the KVACs. Ever since then he has been competing. Training has been a big thing with Pelletier. He’s had to train to get better and faster to beat his opponents. Pelletier had the chance to meet and talk with the Maranacook track coach Tuesday at their meet where the coach gave him some advice on his race-walking. He told him to lengthen his strides and to lower his shoulders.

The previous record, held by Josh Grenier in 2005, was 8:02. This year in 2011, Pelletier broke the record with a significant difference with a 7:20. Not only does he compete in race-walking, but he also does the 400 meter and the 4X4 relay here at OHCHS.

Tyler Pelletier is a senior at OHCHS and has been working hard to get ready for the KVAC and States.  He says, “I’ve worked on my form and pushing myself harder.”  The KVAC meet is next Saturday, May 28, at Morse High School, and the States is going to be held at Windham High School on June 4^th. Pelletier is now ranked 1st in KVACs and 3rd in States.

The Start of Something New

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="190" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption]

Schools around the world have a wide varieties of after-school activities, from sports to chess to larking. Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School offers a pretty wide variety of clubs and sports already, but the staff is always up for students coming up with new ideas and starting new clubs. That's just what two juniors, Joel Doherty and Max Brown, are wanting to do. They have an activity in mind in which is fun and which will draw pretty big crowds. This activity is called table tennis or ping pong.

Ping pong has been around for ages, and has even had its own professional stage. The sport was featured in one of the most widely known movies in America, Forrest Gump. The main character, Gump, became a ping-pong champion after being injured in the war. He fell in love with the sport and quickly picked up the essentials of the game. In the movie, he could beat everyone.

“This sport is really fun and would hopefully get a bunch of people together, where they could meet new people and improve their skills,” comments Doherty, one of the juniors who is working on this. Says his friend, Brown, “The intensity of the game and it being not that hard to learn is the best thing about it."

The Ping Pong Club is something they want to start as soon as possible. What's stopping this is the lack of a counselor or coach. If you're interested in helping the group out, get in touch with either Mr, Moccia or the two students who want this club to be an official activity at OHCHS.

OHMS goes all the way to the championships

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="122" caption="Vikings at OHCHS might have looked like this only they would be green."][/caption]

By Abby Shanor, Tyler Pelletier

OXFORD HILLS – There's big news here in the Oxford Hills – the middle school football team made the state championship game. Over the course of a long six-game season, the Vikings went 3-3, a respectable finishing record. Starting the season with 0-3 and the Vikings made it all the way ... a true underdog story.

The first three games were lost by a combined margin of nine points, all very close losses. What turned this team around was a win over Auburn, 13-12 at home. Auburn hadn’t lost a game before and didn’t lose another after until the play-offs.

The Vikings then went on a winning streak of three games including defeats of Lewiston, and Gardner by forfeit. When Gardner forfeited it gave the Vikings the fourth seed in the play-offs, which meant a rematch of the game with Auburn, who only lost one game the entire season and was the number one seed.

“The boys were really motivated for that game,” said Coach Chris Marston. “Not only because it was a play-off game, but because they knew if they knocked Auburn out of the play-offs, we would be the only team to beat Auburn all season and we would have done it twice. They took a lot of pride in knowing that they could accomplish that and nobody else could.”

The Vikings ended up shocking the Red Eddies 21-14, a major upset. They made it to the big show, as a complete underdog. The championship game was held at Mt. Blue middle school where the Vikings would take on Mt. Blue, one of the teams which beat the Vikings early in the season by two points. “We were very positive about our chances going into that championship game because we felt that we outplayed them earlier in the year, but they stole one from us,” explained Marston. “They returned two fumbles for touchdowns in the first meeting and those were their only points.”

Mt. Blue got on the score board early and used that momentum to spark a 16-0 lead at the half. The Vikings started the second half with the ball and marched up the field with a good running game by Gavin Bandy and a strong offensive push led by Zack Little and Brennan Gillespie.

The Vikings would score off a 20-yard touchdown pass by Brady LaFrance to Ian Lejonhud. That would be the only offense shown by the Vikings, and Mt. Blue would eventually win by a final score of 30-6.

“To go from 0-3 to playing in the championship game is something these boys can be proud of...this class will use that as a motivation for when they get into high school,” said Marston.

Coach Marston also noted how supportive families and local businesses were.

“This success could not have been possible if it wasn’t for them,” he concluded.

Viking Sports

In the midst of their seasons, all the Varsity sports for OHCHS are working on improvement. whether it be in strength, or in record. The only winning team as of now is the Girls' Varsity Field Hockey team, with a record of five wins and four losses. Player, Crissy Lewis says, We’re "not doing so well right now." I believe, they are having an okay year. Since they do have a winning record, they must be doing something right. After all the hardship the Vikings (8 - 5) ended up in the second round of the playoffs, where they would lose unfortunately to Skowhegan (14 - 0) with a score of 4 - 0. Congrats on making it that far.
A sport that doesn't have a real record but is doing really well this season is the golf team. Jordan Strong comments, "Golf Team did great. We made it to the play-offs and [then] lost to Brunswick." At least they made it to the play-offs. Good job Golf Team.
A team who is working hard just like the Golf Team, but playing even harder, is the Cross Country Team. I run on this team and in my opinion we are all continuing to get faster and stronger. We have shown a lot of improvement throughout the year and will continue to do the same till the end. The boys' team finished 44th out of 65 competing teams. Well done boys. In our last meet at Belfast, we placed
A team which has also been improving a lot throughout the season is the Boys’ Varsity Soccer Team. Derek Morin commented, "The team is doing well, improving game by game. Our record is two wins and seven losses.” As long as they are improving, they're okay in my book. but improvement isn't the case in girls varsity soccer. Melissa Strauss says " Our record is two wins and six losses. We're still working o improvement. But still better than the last few years." I'm guessing they went the last year with no wins or maybe one. But still, they are doing good. Both teams would finish with a record of 2 - 10 - 2. The team that everyone is still talking since their first win is the varsity football team. Matt Farnum commented " We have one win and four losses. We have a good defense but a struggling offense." From watching the games, I see your point Matt, but hey, at least we have won one game. I bet everyone wants to see one more, but that homecoming game was thanks enough. They would finish with a record of 1 - 7. So overall, we have a decent sports program and are mostly focusing on improvement. Good luck Vikings on the rest of your seasons.

Vikings Clip the Wings

September 25, was a beautiful Saturday for some hard - knocking homecoming football. The match-up, our beloved Vikings against our rivals the Eagles of Mt. Ararat. Winless since our last regular season game against them, there was a lot of pressure mounting on our guys. The fact that it was homecoming didn't help either. They responded to this pressure.

I sat down with George Turner, number 19, to get a little feed back on how the game all went down. The game plan was to control their best player, like any other team would do. The defense changed to a cover 5 for passing downs, and a base for running downs. The first half was a success, the Vikings jumping out to an early lead of 14 - 0, with our defense leading the way.

To the second half we go. The Eagles finally put some points on the board and the score 14 - 8. A couple of great defensive stops happened late and the Vikings hung on to clinch the win. The crowd went bananas! It was their first win of the season.

The Vikings also made some history, with this win, it being their first home win in four years and their first Homecoming win at home in seven! Also, Jordan Croteau had an amazing
game with 16 tackles. I see it fair to give him the Viking Player of the Game.

I heard nothing but excitement over the course of the weekend and still today, it's heard in the halls with words like "I can't believe we won!"

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="151" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption]

Well believe it because there are many more to come. We are all very proud of our football team and can't wait to see what they do next. So thanks to George Turner and good luck Vikings. Hope you can do it again.