| Title: | Student-Athlete: Track & Field |
| Year: | 1982 |
Paul Elkin, 1982, Track and Field
Paul Elkin ’82 would lay claim as one of the greatest sprinters in the history of Eastern Maine schoolboy track. He won seven individual state championships (five indoors and two outdoors) and dominated the Penobscot Valley Conference (PVC) and Eastern Maine Indoor Track League (EMITL) championship sprint events by garnering a total of nine individual titles. He was described by Maine sports reporters as “fleet and powerful” and a “dominant force”. At 5’11”and 170 pounds he personified both speed and strength and appeared larger than those he ran against, a man among boys. Paul Elkin was one of those athletes, that when he ran, everyone stopped to watch; you would pull out your stopwatch and look forward to a fast time.
Fortunately for the track world, after an unsuccessful tryout for the Brewer High School freshman basketball team, Elkin decided to join the indoor track team. This was the beginning of Elkin’s impressive high school career as the premier sprinter in the State of Maine. However, just as his career was taking off, in one of his first long jump competitions in indoor track during his freshman year, Elkin broke his ankle, which sidelined him for the rest of the indoor season. His resiliency, determination, and perseverance prevailed and he fortunately recovered in time to compete in spring track. At the 1979 Class A Eastern Regional Outdoor Track Meet, Elkin had the fastest time in the 220yd dash and the second fastest time in the 100 yd dash which was an incredible performance considering he was coming off a broken ankle and he was only a Freshman. In his first Class A State meet, Paul got 5th in the 220yd dash.
Elkin really came into his own in the spring of his sophomore year. He won both the 100yd dash and 220yd dash at the PVC Championships and in the process set the PVC record in the 100yd dash in an impressive 10.1 seconds. At the 1980 Class A State Meet Elkin won his first state championship title in the 220 yd dash and finished 2nd in the 100 yd dash. He also ran an outstanding anchor leg on the 440 yd relay bringing the Brewer team from last position to 3rd.
During his junior year of indoor track Elkin solidified his greatness among the state's sprinters. He was undefeated all year in the 300yd run winning both the EMITL and State Championships. He would also set the EMITL record in the 300yd dash at 32.5 seconds. That record was never broken and stood for 16 years until it was retired in 1997 when the State of Maine stopped running the event. He culminated his junior indoor season by winning gold medals at the 1981 State Championship in all three of his events: the 60yd dash, 300 yd. dash and long jump. He is the only male athlete in Brewer Indoor Track history to score 30 points in an indoor state meet. Elkin continued his junior year success outdoors by claiming the PVC titles in the 100m, 200m, and long jump. At the Class A State Championship, Elkin won the 100m dash and finished 3rd in the long jump and 200m, scoring all of Brewer's 22 points.
Elkin capped his great career during his senior year in indoor track. He was victorious in the 60yd dash and 300yd dash in all of his meets, including the EMITL Championship and the Class A State Championship where in both meets he also earned the silver medal in the long jump. Paul Elkin would be the major force on Brewer Indoor Track teams that never lost a regular season meet in four years. They won EMITL championships in 1980 and 1982, and were State Class A runners-up in 1979, 1980, and 1982 and placed 3rd in 1981. It was an unprecedented run of strength by the Brewer boys’ indoor track program that has never been duplicated and Elkin was a major contributor to those successes.
Elkin was an outstanding sprinter who had a unique ability to perform at the highest level in the biggest moments. He is the only Brewer High School male runner to win Class A Outdoor Track 100m and 220yd individual state titles. He scored an amazing 58 out of a possible 60 points in his last two indoor state championships making him the highest scoring male indoor track athlete in Brewer High School history.
After graduating from Brewer, Elkin focused solely on his studies and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maine. Following college, he worked for Central Maine Power for 11 years, and is currently the Senior Vice President of Substation Engineering for TRC, a national electrical engineering firm, where he has worked for the past 19 years. Paul Elkin resides in Sydney, Maine with his wife Karen, of 23 years. The Elkins have two children, a son Daeghan, a senior at the University of Maine, and a daughter, Gabrielle, a senior at Messalonskee High School (2018).
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE INDUCTION AND ACCEPTANCE SPEECH OF PAUL ELKIN
Paul Elkin and his presenter David Jeffrey