Bangor surprises PVC field by taking girls championship

ELLSWORTH – Liz Dudley could not recall winning two individual events in a big meet.

Until Saturday, that is, when the junior sprinter’s triumphs in the 200 and 400-meter dashes led the young, upstart Bangor High School girls to an impressive Penobscot Valley Conference track championship at Ellsworth High School.

On the boys side, Ellsworth proved there is no cooking like home cooking by edging Mount Desert Island and Brewer for the title behind Joey Luchini, a freshman double winner in the 1600 and 3200.

The Bangor girls finished with 108 points to outdistance Old Town, 78, Brewer, 61, and Hampden Academy, 60. John Bapst rounded out the top five with 48.

Ellsworth’s boys racked up 94 points, six more than MDI and 12 more than Brewer. Old Town, 52, and Bangor, 48, finished out the top five.

“We were seeded to finish with 83 points, but in just about every race the girls either scored like they were supposed to or they exceeded themselves,” said a pleased Bangor High coach Gary Capehart. “We’ve got competitors on this team.”

“Bangor had a very good meet, just like we had last year,” said Old Town coach Rod White. “The Dudley girl had a really good meet. If we gave out an MVP award, she would have won it.”

Dudley’s win in the 400 was a surprise.

“I wasn’t even expected to place in the 400. But I went out there and ran the best I could because I hate losing,” said Dudley who was also motivated by the fact her Bangor High career is winding down. She will attend Cushing Academy in Massachusets next year.

Besides Dudley and Sarah Parcak, who won the long jump, the other Ram to claim an individual victory was junior distance specialist Heather Arsenault, who won the 3,200.

Other double winners were Hampden Academy’s Frederique Boura, in the triple jump and high jump, and Old Town’s Nichol Stevens, in the 800 and 1600. Old Town’s Nikki Hayes was on the way to winning both hurdles until she fell during the 300 low hurdles. She won the 100 high hurdles.

In the boys meet, Luchini keyed Ellsworth by winning the 3200 by 14.5 seconds and the 1600 by 3.8 seconds with personal best times of 9:50.1 and 4:27.2.

“I followed the leader and then kicked it in with three laps to go in the 1600 and five laps to go in the 3200,” said Luchini. “I gave it all I had.”

“Joey doesn’t have a lot of speed, but he has great endurance,” said Ellsworth coach Andy Beardsley.

The other individual winners for Ellsworth were Ben Hamilton in the triple jump and Dana Bellows in the 800.

Hamilton, who was also third in the high jump and fourth in the long jump, is a senior participating in track for the first time.

“I went out for track last year but I had to get a job,” said Hamilton. “I had to drop it. This year people encouraged me to come out and, being a senior and all, it’s something I really wanted to do.”

“We’ve got an extremely well-balanced team. Distance running, throwing and jumping are the three areas we have good athletes who scored high,” said Beardsley.

MDI was led by David Hawes and Lincoln Mills, who won individual events and ran a leg for MDI’s two triumphant relay teams.

“We did better than I thought we would do,” said MDI coach Dan Koch.