By Dave Dyer

Staff Writer

Scarborough High School senior Sam Chick runs, and runs and runs.

He runs during all three sports seasons. In the fall, he’s on the cross-country team. During the winter and spring, he runs for the indoor and outdoor track teams.

“You get a week off in between seasons,” Chick said. “It all kind of bleeds together.”

The constant running has worked for him, though. He is a two time state champion in the 800-meter run, earning one during last year’s outdoor season and winning again during this year’s indoor season.

Chick said the 800-meter run is his best event, because he said it’s more of a middle-range event, not consisting of either sprinting or long distance running.

“I don’t have the speed of a sprinter, and not a great body type for long distance,” Chick said. “It’s like the break even of the two.”

Chick said he typically participates in any event asked of him, which includes the long jump and the triple jump. 

He recently finished in first place in the 300-meter hurdles, the 110-meter hurdles and the triple jump during the April 29 track meet against Thornton Academy and Noble High School.

Chick said track does take strategy, as runners have to pace themselves and know how long a race is. He said sometimes when he runs, he realizes he needs to try to run faster.

“Once you start singing in your head, the race has gone on too long,” he said.

He said his favorite moment in track has been when he was the anchor leg of the 4-by-800-meter relay team that finished in first place last year during the indoor state championship meet.

“That was just awesome,” he said.

Chick said his interest in running began in the fifth grade. 

He said every year during gym class, he had to take a “pacer test,” where students would run until they became exhausted and would decide to stop. He said he would typically be the last student to stop running.

“I thought, ‘I should keep doing this.’ I gave up soccer, because I wasn’t very good at it, and I ran cross-country and have loved it ever since,” Chick said.

Chick said running high school track is interesting because of being able to win individual races and earn points for the team to win a track meet.

“It can be individually satisfying, but it’s also good to have a team win,” he said.

Chick said he also enjoys the period when a race is over, as it means he has finished the challenge of running.

Chick has enjoyed enough success on the track that he will run next year on the track team at Bowdoin College in Brunswick. 

He said the recruiting process began when one of his high school coaches, who is a Bowdoin graduate, called the college’s coaching staff  about Chick. 

After meeting the coaches and the team and touring the school, Chick decided he wanted run for the Polar Bears.

While he does not know what his major will be, Chick said he hopes to find one that combines his love of environmental science, physics and statistics.

Chick said he is hopeful he will be able to balance his running schedule with his studies while attending Bowdoin.

“I’m hoping I can get through it,” Chick said. “I’m concerned, but I wouldn’t say I’m worried. It’ll be fun.”

Until then, Chick said he and the rest of the Scarborough boys’ track team will focus on trying to win a state championship.

“States is anyone’s meet at this point,” he said.

Staff writer Dave Dyer can be reached at 282-4337 ext. 219