WATERVILLE - Four outstanding athletes will be inducted into theMaine Running Hall of Fame in a ceremony on Sunday at Killarney's.
Harold Hatch, Christine Snow-Reaser, Paul Firlotte, and O.J. Loguewill join the 66 Maine track and field athletes who have beeninducted since the Hall's inception in 1989.
Hatch, a Castine native, attended Pemetic High School on MountDesert Island and won the 1956 New England cross country championshipas a senior. He also captured the Class M schoolboy mile in a state-record time of 4 minutes, 31.9 seconds. The next year, he wasselected by the Bangor Daily News as the first high school athlete tobe inducted into the Bangor Daily News Sports Hall of Fame.
Hatch was a captain on the last University of Maine New Englandcross country championship team. He set a New England masters recordin the mile in 1979 with a time of 4:38.6. At age 50, he was secondin the National Masters 10K cross country championships and ran4:58.4 to win the New England 50-plus masters mile.
Snow-Reaser led the Old Orchard Beach schoolgirl team to its firststate championship title and won the 800, 1,600, and 3,200 meters.She set the Class C record in the 3,200 meters that still standstoday (10:53).
Snow-Reaser continued her running career at Eastern KentuckyUniversity, where she led her team to four Ohio Valley Conferencecross country titles, winning individual titles her freshman andsenior years. After college, she placed third twice at the MarineCorps Marathon, in 1989 and 1991, and won the Columbia Marathon in1991.
In 1996, Snow-Reaser competed in the Olympic Marathon Trials inColumbia, S.C. In 2001 and 2002, she won the Maine divisioncompetition for women at the Beach-to-Beacon 10K.
Firlotte entered Ellsworth High School in September of 1948 andwon his first race against Orono and was undefeated in Maine crosscountry meets throughout high school. He finished his stellar highschool career with a victory in the New England Championships in1951.
Firlotte is believed to be the only Maine high school crosscountry runner to go undefeated against Maine competition and wasnicknamed the 'Ellsworth Express' by BDN sportswriters.
Firlotte attended the University of Maine in Orono and, in an erawhen freshmen weren't allowed to compete, won the Yankee Conferencechampionships all three of his varsity years, 1953-55. He ended hiscareer by winning the New England collegiate championship his senioryear and leading his University of Maine quintet to the teamchampionship. In 1955 he was named the Maine Athlete of the Year bythe BDN, and in 1992 he was inducted into the University of MaineSports Hall of Fame.
Logue overcame deafness, a speech impairment, and asthma to becomeone of the state's best runners. At Orono High School, he served ascaptain for three state championship teams: cross country, indoortrack, and outdoor track.
Logue is a 1977 graduate of the University of Southern Maine wherehe finished fourth in the NAIA regional qualifying meet in crosscountry as a sophomore and earned an invitation to the nationalcompetition.
Logue achieved two racing milestones in 1981 when he was the firstMaine finisher in the Boston Marathon (2:26:06) and won the MaineCoast Marathon (2:27:44).
Logue was also the first person in Maine to compete in the DeafOlympics and represented the U.S. in track and field in 1981 inCologne, West Germany. He set personal records there with a 15:01clocking in the 5K (7th place), and 31:36 in the 10K (6th). He alsotook sixth in the 25K. In 1982, Logue ran a 30-mile solo benefit runthat raised more than $9,000 for the family of Adam Hodge, an 8-year-old battling leukemia.
The induction banquet is 12-3 p.m. Advanced reservations arerequired and tickets are $20 per person. For reservations, contactPeter Millard at pmillard@adelphia.net.
