Lewiston’s Makenna Drouin pulls ahead of the field in the girls 100 hurdles at the Class A track state championships at Thornton Academy in Saco on June 1. Drouin won the title, finishing in 14.79 seconds. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald
Makenna Drouin was unstoppable in the 300-meter hurdles — no competitor could top her, nor could a lingering foot injury — during her senior year.
The recent Lewiston graduate takes the event seriously — as she showed during a regular-season track and field meet.
“During one of her 300-meter hurdle races, she came off of a hurdle in a weird way and the foot of her lead leg hit the track in an awkward position and she fell,” Lewiston track and field coach Craig John said. “She got up and won the race. At the finish, I saw that she had a big contusion on her knee that was bleeding. That demonstrates what kind of a competitor she is and how strong she has become.”
Drouin said she takes the hurdle events (100 and 300 in outdoors, 55 and 200 indoors) “much more seriously and personally” than the short sprints, at which she also excels.
Drouin capped her high school career by winning her fourth straight 300 hurdles state title and third consecutive 100 hurdles crown at this year’s Class A state championship meet. She won both those events at the KVAC Large School championships, along with the 100- and 200-meter dashes, sweeping all four events at the conference meet each year of her high school career.
She nearly added a 100 dash title at the Class A state meet, but lost in a photo finish.
Drouin was the state’s best hurdler this year, continuing a trend from throughout her high school career. She was also just plain fast, backed up by her showings and times in the sprints. So she speeds away with the title of Sun Journal Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year for the third straight year.
“Makenna works hard. She eats, sleeps and breathes track. She’s been at the top for quite awhile. Her peers respect her for the work she has put in, her sportsmanship and the friends she has made throughout the track community,” John said.
As tough as a competitor as she is, Drouin said that she focused on more than winning this outdoor season.
“I made sure to enjoy the last moments as a high school track athlete as much as I could, and I made sure to enjoy all the last moments with my teammates and competitors that I am close with as much as I could,” she said. “I made so many memories to add to the books of high school track that I can always look back on.”
John said one of the most memorable parts for him of Drouin’s season was seeing her with a big smile on her face every time she stepped to the top of the podium.
To get there, the preparation was a little different this season.
“My focus and goal were to get through my last outdoor season as a high school track athlete the best I could with the foot injury I had for most of my outdoor season, since after indoor states, but I was trying not to let that be really in my way as much as I could,” Drouin said. “My foot didn’t start feeling a good deal better until two weeks before my KVAC and states, and I rested it for a week before the championship season started for me, which helped a lot.”
John said Drouin was put in three events instead of four in most of the meets to allow her body to get some extra rest.
“We had cut back on her training a bit, but Makenna is really good at overcoming these kinds of obstacles,” he added.
Once championship season came along, Drouin was back at being the best of the best.
Her KVAC-winning time in the 300 hurdles (47.68 seconds) was more than two seconds slower than her season-best (45.48), but still good enough for first place. Her other winning times were 15.70 in the 100 hurdles, 12.67 in the 100 dash and 25.90 in the 200 dash. She was named the Don Berry Track Athlete of the Meet for her efforts.
Drouin entered the state meet as the third seed in the 100 hurdles, but she showed who was best when it mattered most, blazing to a season-best time of 14.79 that was more than a half-second faster than her seed time of 15.34.
Her winning time to complete a four-year sweep in the 300 hurdles wasn’t quite her season-best, but her mark of 45.62 was quick enough to top the runner-up by 0.12 seconds.
The finish line was unkind to Drouin in the 100 dash. Both she and Scarborough’s Emerson Flaker clocked in at 12.15 seconds, but the timing system showed Flaker with a slightly faster time of 12.141 seconds to Drouin’s 12.145.
Despite that defeat, Drouin tried to take all of her season in stride.
“My proudest moment of this season is finishing and looking back on how much I’ve done in track since I started freshman year to my senior year. Everything means a lot to me, through the ups and downs of it,” she said. “Maine track and field will always hold a place in my heart. It’ll be known as the place where I started it all, and be the reason why I continue track and field at Elon University at the next level.”
Drouin said she was appreciative of the support of coaches, teammates and trainers “that got me through this season and always made sure to keep my head up and remember who I am, through the ups and downs of my injury, and attempt to get to get me back as close as they could to where I needed to be for my big meets.”
Drouin also made sure to celebrate her teammates’ accomplishments as much as they celebrated all of hers.
“A memorable memory from the championship meets that I’m proud of is celebrating everyone’s races,” she said. “Even if they weren’t in the top places or if someone did a PR, we made everyone feel like we were all winners to us, because most of the people at the championships on my team were doing their personal-best times or tried their best to do so, and that’s bigger than a win for us.”
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