October 28, 2003
BOSTON, October 28, 2003 –The Maine Games has announced the selection of the New Balance/Maine Games Male and Female Athlete of the Year Award winners for the 2003 Inaugural Maine Games.
Maine Games president, Sean Casey, and executive director, Jeff Scully, are pleased to announce that the 2003 New Balance/Maine Games Female Athlete of the Year is Alana van Loenen of Falmouth, and the 2003 New Balance/Maine Games Male Athlete of the Year is Trey Gadbois, of Portland. Both athletes participated in the Maine Games track and field event held this past June at South Portland High School and will receive a plaque sponsored by New Balance.
Alana van Loenen has been participating in track and field for eight years and is the reigning indoor and outdoor schoolgirl state champion in the high jump and the runner up in the long jump. In 2003 she set a new league record in the high jump with a leap of 5 feet 6 ? inches. Alana placed third in the long jump at the High School New England Championships in 2003. She finished the 2003/2004 school year with a grade point average of 4.0 and is a member of the National Honor Society.
Alana said that her greatest athletic accomplishment to date was setting the new league record for high jump at the Southwestern Championship meet. It was her first record at the time, breaking the old mark by an inch. Alana's experience in the Maine Games was a memorable one as she set the mark in the high jump, long jump and 400 meters.
Alana, through medaling at the Maine Games in 2003, qualified for the State Games of America – a national amateur sports festival, held in Hartford this past August, where she won a gold medal in the long jump and a silver medal in the high jump.
Trey Gadbois, a 2003 graduate of Portland High School, he is the winner of the 2003 Gordon Williams trophy, as the top performer in the senior division at the SMAA Indoor Track and Field meet. He was voted the Male Athlete of the Year by his classmates at Portland High School. Trey was also a member of the All-state Track team four years in a row and was named by the Portland Press Herald the 2003 Outdoor Male Track athlete of the year.
Not only does Trey excel in track and field events, but he also was an all-conference wide receiver and the 2003 Lyman Dunnell scholarship winner as well as the winner of the David W. Allen memorial scholarship. He's the current runner-up for the High School New England Indoor track and field meet with a high jump of 6 feet 6 inches.
The University of Connecticut is the recipient of Trey's many talents as he plans on attending that school beginning in January of 2004. Trey set the Maine Games record in 2003 in the high jump, long jump and triple jump for his age bracket.
The Maine Games are the Pine Tree State's own Olympic-style sports festival. The inaugural games were held in the Greater Portland area in June. More than 1000 athletes of all ages and abilities participated in this year's games, competing in seven different events. Athletes from all sixteen Maine counties, and 146 different communities competed for gold, silver, and bronze medals.
Plans for the 2004 Maine Games are currently underway with more than 15 different events expected. More than 3,000 athletes are expected to participate.
The Maine Games are a non-profit corporation, and a member of the National Congress of State Games, which is a community-based member of the United States Olympic Committee.
New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc., headquartered in Boston, MA, is a leading manufacturer of technologically innovative width-sized performance footwear and athletic apparel for women, men, and children. The range of product categories includes running, walking, cross training, basketball, tennis, adventure sports, and kids. Dunham joined the New Balance family in Fall 1998. Dunham is an outdoor performance brand known for its technologies, innovations and development of footwear that is lightweight, comfortable and inspired by the world outside. New Balance acquired the rights to the PF Flyers brand in February 2000. First introduced in 1937 by the B.F. Goodrich Company, PF Flyers was re-launched in Spring 2003 as an authentic brand of active casual footwear. New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. employs more than 2,400 people around the globe, and in 2002 reported worldwide sales of $1.3 billion. For more information please visit http://www.newbalance.com.
