Though losing three of its star runners, one of whom is the twice winner of the State interscholastic individual cross-country championship, Mike Sawyer, Coach Charley Diehl is confident that Pennell Institute next will present another, great harrier pack which should add to the laurels the Gray school has been collecting of late years. Captain Johnny -Hancock, Mike Sawyer and Raymond Simpson have trudged up hill and down dale for the last time under the colors of Pennell but next season will find six members of this year’s championship squad again available. And all of them should be improved runners with the passing of another year.
Diehl Successful Coach
Since the advent of Charley Diehl, who went in for football but not track during his undergraduate days at Bates, at Pennell that school has been drawing the attention of the entire State by its knack of turning out good cross country men. It has gained previous successes in this branch of sport but past accomplishments were dimmed by the splendid record the Pennell runners hung up during the recently closed season.
Swept Eight Meets
Participating in eight meets and competing against some of the best teams in Maine, teams which ordinarily would rate a class far above Pennell with its comparatively small enrollment of students, Diehl’s harriers came through the campaign without a single defeat being chalked against them. Numbered among their feats was the winning of the State Interscholastic Meet, sponsored by the University of Maine, against 11 other schools of which Deering High was one. Defeating the “A” team of the Bates Freshmen and Kent’s Hill were two especially commendable victories, Pennell twice registered perfect scores, once in defeating Windham and later in winning the Triple C championship against Freeport and Windham. Other victories were two over Mechanic Falls High and the Litchfield Academy run against four other teams.
All of Pennell’s victories with the exception of one of two duels with Mechanic Falls and the meeting with Kent’s Hill were scored over strange courses.
The runners who are counted upon to form the nucleus of the 1931 Pennell team are Russell Chipman, Harland MacPherson. Warren Cole, Arthur Harmon, Lawrence Carter and William Caswell.
Portland Press Herald
Portland, Maine · Sunday, December 21, 1930
