MAINE, USA — After being postponed due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games opened on July 23. Several athletes on Team USA have Maine and New Hampshire ties. Here's a little more about them and how they performed in Tokyo.
Four current, and eight former Portland Sea Dogs players were in Tokyo for the Olympic Games, including four who were on Team USA. Current players include Triston Casas, Joey Meneses, Ronaldi Baldwin, and Denyi Reyes. Sea Dogs' first baseman and Red Sox top prospect Triston Casas, 21, led all players in Tokyo with 8 RBIs and tied with Israel's Danny Valencia for the most home runs.
Team USA made it to the finals where they faced Japan, but ultimately fell to the host country 0-2, taking silver.
Two current Sea Dogs, catcher Roldani Baldwin and pitcher Denyi Reyes, as well as former outfileder Johan Mieses, played with the Dominican Republic and won bronze medals in Tokyo.
Rachel Schneider, a 30-year-old Sanford native, made Team USA for the first time. She finished 17th in the preliminary heat with a time of 15:00:07, missing a shot at the final by 0.52 seconds.
CLICK HERE to watch a replay of Sanford native Rachel Schneider's race in women's 5,000-meter, which aired Friday at 6:26 a.m. ET. Start the video at the 35-minute mark.
RELATED: 'Pretty magical' | Sanford native Rachel Schneider reflects on her first Olympics with Team USA
Diver Jessica Parratto, who grew up in Dover, N.H., and Delaney Schnell won silver in the women's synchronized 10-meter platform. Click here to watch a replay of the dive.
University of New Hampshire grad Elle Purrier St. Pierre made it to the women's 1,500-meter finals on Friday, August 6. World leader Faith Kipyegon of Kenya repeated as Olympic 1500m champion, passing Sifan Hassan at the 225-meter mark to finish in an Olympic-record 3:53.11, besting Paula Ivan's 3:53.96 from the 1988 Seoul Games. Purrier St. Pierre finished 10th. Click here to watch highlights of the race.
University of Southern Maine graduate David Hughes and his sailing partner Stu McNay made it to the medal race on Wednesday, August 4 and missed medaling by 22 seconds, coming in 4th. Australia won the gold, Sweden took silver, and Spain took bronze. Click here to watch a replay of the race.
Maine
Sanford-born distance runner Rachel Schneider, who now lives in Flagstaff, Arizona, placed third in the women's 5000 meter on June 21 with a time of 15:29.56, securing her spot on Team USA. In 2019, she qualified for the World Championships in the same event.
Schneider placed 17th overall in the first round of the women's 5,000-meter run at the Tokyo Olympics Friday, ultimately missing a chance to run in the finals. She was in the top of her heat for the majority of the race until the final two laps when the frontrunners started to pull away. Schneider ran 15:00.07. She would have needed to run faster than 14:59.55 to earn a spot in the finals.
REPLAY LINK | Watch Schneider's heat at the 35-minute mark.
Click here for the full Track & Field schedule of events.
NEWS CENTER Maine's Chris Costa sat down with Schneider just 36 hours after she qualified for Team USA.
Watch more parts of the interview in our Tokyo 2020 Olympics playlist on YouTube.
University of Southern Maine graduate David Hughes will compete in his second Olympic Games this summer in Tokyo. Hughes, who was born in Ithica, N.Y. and now lives in Miami, finished 4th in the 2016 Rio summer games with his sailing partner Stu McNay. Hughes and McNay will compete in the 470 (two-person dinghy) sailing event.
Hughes graduated from USM in 1999.
Hughes and McNay made it to the medal race on Wednesday, August 4 and missed medaling by 22 seconds, coming in 4th. Australia won the gold, Sweden took silver, and Spain took bronze.
WHEN TO WATCH:
- Tuesday, July 27 at 11:05 p.m. ET: Men's 470 Race 1: Finished 8th
- Tuesday, July 27 at 12:20 a.m. ET: Men's 470 Race 2: Finished 12th
- Wednesday, July 28 at 2:05 a.m. ET: Men's 470 Race 3: Finished 9th
- Wednesday, July 28 at 3:20 a.m. ET: Men's 470 Race 4: Finished 10th
- Thursday, July 29 at 11:05 p.m. ET: Men's 470 Race 5: Finished 8th
- Thursday, July 29 at 12:20 a.m. ET: Men's 470 Race 6: Finished 8th
- Saturday, July 31 at 11:15 p.m. ET: Men's 470 Race 7: Finished 7th
- Saturday, July 31 at 12:30 a.m. ET: Men's 470 Race 8: Finished 9th
- Monday, August 2 at 11:15 p.m. ET: Men's 470 Race 9: Finished 8th
- Tuesday, August 3 at 12:30 a.m. ET: Men's 470 Race 10: Finished 11th
- Wednesday, August 4 at 1:33 a.m. ET: Men's 470 Medal Race: Finished 4th
Amateur boxer Amelia Moore, who was born in Norway, Maine, is currently an alternate to Rashida Ellis on Team USA’s boxing team.
Click here to see the full Boxing schedule.
Clara Brown, who was born in Portland and grew up in Falmouth, made it through team trials in Minneapolis and will be one of 14 cyclists on Team USA in the Paralympics. Tokyo will be Brown’s first Paralympics, but she’s already won six world championships in her career.
NEWS CENTER Maine's Samantha York spoke with Brown in May to talk about her Olympics journey.
The Tokyo Paralympic Games get underway on August 24.
Skowhegan native Nick Rogers will compete in his second Paralympic Games this summer in Tokyo. Rogers, who grew up in Bingham, placed fifth in the 400 meter and eighth in the 100 meter in Rio in 2016.
He's a 2015 Lisbon High School graduate.
The Tokyo Paralympic Games get underway on August 24.
Baseball will return to the Olympics for the first time since 2008. Four of the six teams that qualified for Tokyo feature at least one Sea Dogs connection. Japan and Korea are the only teams without a current or former Sea Dog on the roster.
Four current, and eight former Portland Sea Dogs players will be in Tokyo for the Olympic Games, including four who will be on Team USA. Current players include Triston Casas, Joey Meneses, Ronaldi Baldwin, and Denyi Reyes.
Team USA
- Sea Dogs' first baseman and Red Sox top prospect Triston Casas, 21, who qualified for the Olympics when he hit .400 over four games for Team USA.
- Former Sea Dogs' catcher Tim Federowicz, who was with the Sea Dogs in 2011 until being traded to the Dodgers.
- Former infielder Jack Lopez, who opened the 2021 season with the Sea Dogs before being promoted to Triple-A Worcester in May.
- Former Sea Dogs Manager Darren Fenster will be Team USA's third base coach. He managed the Sea Dogs in 2018, and is currently the Red Sox Minor League Outfield and Baserunning Coordinator.
Team Mexico
- Sea Dogs outfielder Joey Meneses, who through July 11 hit .303 with nine home runs through July 11. He leads the team with 42 RBIs, 54 hits, and 42 doubles.
- Former Sea Dogs pitcher Teddy Stankiewicz, who was with the team from 2016-2018, and was an Eastern League All-Star in 2017.
- Adrian Gonzalez, a member of the Sea Dogs Hall of Fame, played 138 games for the Sea Dogs in 2002, where he hit .266 with 17 home runs and 96 RBI. He had a 15-year Major League career where he was a five-time Major League Baseball All-Star and recipient of four Gold Glove awards.
- Catcher Ali Solis appeared in 20 games for the Sea Dogs in 2016. Solis played in 16 big leagues with Padres and Rays.
Team Dominican Republic
- Catcher Roldani Baldwin, who has appeared in 27 games for the Sea Dogs this season, hitting .256 through July 11.
- Pitcher Denyi Reyes is in his second season with the Sea Dogs. In 13 games this season, he has produced a 3-1 record with a 2.90 ERA.
- Former Sea Dogs outfielder Johan Mieses opened the 2021 season with the Sea Dogs. He blasted 11 home runs in 23 games for Portland before being promoted to Triple-A Worcester on June 2.
Team Israel
- Former Sea Dogs catcher Ryan Lavarnway was with the Sea Dogs from 2010-2011. He has appeared in 160 Major League games over ten seasons.
Emilie Grand'Pierre is a junior at Bowdoin College in Brunswick and will be competing in Tokyo on the Haitian swimming team. At Bowdoin, Grand'Pierre is on both the swimming and diving teams.
Her parents are both immigrants from Haiti, and she said representing Haiti in the Olympics is "truly one of the biggest honors of my life." Click here to read more about Grand'Pierre.
Grand'Pierre won her heat in the 100-meter breaststroke on Sunday, July 25. Unfortunately, Grand'Pierre was a few seconds off qualifying for the semifinals.
REPLAY LINK | https://stream.nbcolympics.com/swimming-session-3-heats?chrcontext=wcsh. Start at the 42:20 mark of the video.
Click here for the full Swimming schedule.
New Hampshire
Diver Jessica Parratto, who grew up in Dover, made her second straight Olympics diving team. In Rio in 2016, she placed 10th in the individual 10-meter platform dive and 7th in the synchronized 10-meter platform dive.
Parratto teamed up with Delaney Schnell and qualified for the synchronized women’s 10-meter platform event for Tokyo.
Parratto was born in Bloomington, Ind., where she lives now.
On Tuesday, July 27, Parratto and Schnell took silver in just their second competition as a pair. China couldn't be caught for the gold, with Chen Yuxi and Zhang Jiaqi leading all the way on Tuesday to give the diving powerhouse its second victory at the Tokyo Games.
Click here to watch a replay.
Click here for the full Diving schedule.
Nashua native and Katelin Guregian will return to the world's stage with the hopes of bringing home another Olympic medal. In Rio, Guregian placed first in the women's eight rowing event.
Guregian now lives in New Jersey.
The U.S. women's eight crew advanced to the final for a shot to defend gold.
REPLAY LINK | https://stream.nbcolympics.com/rowing-heats-reps-four-lwt-double-more?chrcontext=wcsh. Start at the 277:12 mark of the video.
The U.S. placed fourth in the final. Canada took gold, New Zealand got silver, and China got bronze.
CLICK HERE to watch the final race.
Ariana Ramsey, who is from Philadelphia, Pa., but now lives in Hanover, N.H. where she attends Dartmouth College, is one of 12 starters on Team USA's rugby team. She's the only member of the team who hasn't yet made a World Series appearance, but she helped the U.S. get silver in the 2019 Pan American Cames.
Despite their dominant tournament play, the U.S. was eliminated from medal contention in the women's rugby tournament on Friday, falling 21-12 to Great Britain in the quarterfinals.
Distance runner and University of New Hampshire graduate Elinor "Elle" Purrier St. Pierre is heading to her first Olympics after qualifying in the women's 1,500-meter race final.
Purrier St. Pierre won an NCAA indoor title in the mile for the University of New Hampshire in 2018.
Purrier St. Pierre grew up on a dairy farm in Vermont and now lives in Boston.
Purrier St. Pierre made it to the women's 1,500-meter final. She placed 10th with a time of 4:01.75.
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