Hampden Teams win PVC titles> Youthful Broncos aid return to spotlight; Jon Dearborn injury devastates Brewer

BANGOR – For the last several seasons, Hampden Academy’s boys team has been overshadowed by a Broncos girls program which has established itself as a regional powerhouse.

The boys took a big step out of that shadow on an overcast and chilly afternoon and evening at Cameron Stadium Friday. Their 33-point win over runnerup Bangor claimed the program’s first Penobscot Valley Conference title in more than a decade.

“I feel great for them,” said Hampden coach Dave King. “The boys haven’t won a PVC title for quite some time. We won a bunch of them in the mid-’80s, but not many since.”

The Broncos put up 132 points to defending champ Bangor’s 99 to win the PVC large schools crown.

They did it on the strength of a solid, experienced core of seniors combined with the contributions of a talented but untested group of freshmen and sophomores.

“We knew at the start of the year that we both had pretty good teams. We knew the girls pretty much had PVCs, but we didn’t know about the boys,” said senior Sam Bosse, who led the Broncs to a sweep of the top three spots in the pole vault. “The freshmen have stepped up by placing in meets like this and we’ve really become a solid team.”

Bosse was one of four Broncos to win individual events. The Broncos also won the 1600-meter relay with a blend of youth and experience represented by Ryan Kaufman, freshman Joey Dionne, Justin Groshon, and Chris Chase.

Besides Bosse, the other individual champs were Dionne in the 200 and 400, Joe Weissman in the javelin, and Kaufman in the 100.

Another factor that helped Hampden was an unfortunate injury to Brewer junior Jon Dearborn, the top seed in the 100, 200, and 400 and a member of Brewer’s top-seeded 400 relay team.

“We’re disappointed he’s not competing and we’re disappointed for him, too,” King said. “I sure hope he can come back next week, but a hamstring is tough.”

At the least, Dearborn severely pulled the hamstring in his left leg as a result of a freak injury that occurred 10 feet short of the finish line in the preliminary time trials for the 100 – his first event. At worst, he may have torn it.

“I don’t know what happened. I came out of the blocks a little slow and wanted to catch up some distance, so I started pushing myself and it seized up on the first step when I pushed it,” explained Dearborn, who managed to stay upbeat while joking with the teammates who helped him limp to the sidelines. “I heard coach screaming `Stop, stop. Lay down on the track,’ but I wanted to finish.”

Dearborn did finish, but was in instant agony once he stopped.

“It was just a real bad throbbing pain,” he said.

Brewer coach Chris Libby was equally devastated by the tragic injury.

“I’m really blown away. Before the meet, we were all gearing to win another championship and now we’re kind of shell-shocked,” Libby said. “Now we’re just worried about kids running better times and getting ready for regionals.”

Libby was hopeful, but not optimistic about a quick return to duty for Dearborn.

“I don’t see any way we’re going to get him back. When he had his injury in indoor [quadriceps muscle in the same leg], he didn’t come back,” he said. “We’ll just have to see how bad it is.”

Based on premeet seedings, the meet was a tossup between Brewer and Hampden. King figured out a 130-129 win for Hampden while Libby had it 127-124 Broncos. Without Dearborn, the Witches finished third with 92 points.

Ellsworth’s Ben Shorey turned in the best individual effort of the meet as he shattered the 1,600-meter racewalk record with a time of six minutes, 25.01 seconds. The time beat the previous PVC mark by 1:07.17 and was 48.19 seconds under the state record time (7:13.20).

“I was worried about the track because the curves are longer than I’m used to, but they’re smooth so it wasn’t bad,” Shorey said. “What really worried me though was the wind was blowing hard when we first got here, but it really died down.”

Shorey, who plans to compete in the Junior Nationals meet in Texas this summer, may also try to qualify for Junior Olympics.

The only other multiple winner besides Dionne was Ellsworth’s Adam MacBeth. The relatively-unknown sophomore won the long jump with an effort of 19-8 1/4 and won the 300 hurdles after Bangor’s Shawn Owens fell down on the third to the last hurdle and went from an eight-yard lead to a 12-place finish.