Maine’s Luchini has new role for Saturday’s Keatinge meet

ORONO – Last year the University of Maine’s Joey Luchini spent the Murray Keatinge Invitational 20 yards ahead of the lead pack, looking over his shoulder and trying to stay out of everybody’s way.

Behind him lurked a pack of huffing, puffing, nationally ranked University of Michigan Wolverines. Sounds like Luchini had a pretty good race going, huh?

Not so fast.

Luchini was riding his mountain bike and served as the pace-setter.

“A couple of times there I found myself a few inches away from the leaders because I was so busy trying to watch the race unfold,” said Luchini, who sat out last fall after transferring from the University of Southern Maine.

When the men’s runners toe the starting line at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Luchini will abandon his bike and race in earnest. The women’s race will follow at noon.

This year’s ninth version of the meet that has traditionally brought national-class cross country teams to Orono, will be different in a couple of ways.

First, only seven men’s teams and six women’s squads are entered in each race this year. Normally 10 or more teams have filled the field.

More sobering is one factor that has contributed to the low turnout: The meet’s benefactor and namesake, Murray Keatinge, died in August in Pasadena, Calif., after a battle with heart disease.

“He’s going to be missed throughout the [national] track and field community,” Maine track coach Jim Ballinger said. “Most everybody knew him.”

Keatinge was the person who suggested to Ballinger that a UMaine proposal to host a top-notch national track meeet every spring might not work.

“He thought that track and field would be a tough sell in the northeast, but that cross country would not be. It would be a good fit,” Ballinger said.

Joining the Black Bears for this year’s meet are Nebraska, New Hampshire, Vermont, Central Connecticut, Holy Cross, and the men’s team from Michigan.

Maine distance coach Mark Lech said the death of Keatinge was one of two reasons the field is a bit smaller than in past years.

“He was always instrumental because he called these coaches up and cajoled them and kind of got them to come,” Lech said.

The other reason is a conflict with the pre-NCAA meet, which gives contending teams a chance to run on the same course the NCAA championship meet will be held on.

This year’s race was held in Ames, Iowa last week, and Ballinger and Lech pointed out that many teams don’t like to travel across the country two straight weeks during the season.

But Ballinger said he was confident that next year’s meet would turn into one that Murray Keatinge would have been proud of: It will be a memorial race.

“[He died] so soon before this race that we didn’t think we could prepare properly for what we wanted to do as a tribute to him,” said Ballinger, who said he expects most of the teams that have appeared at the race in past years to flock to Orono next October.

“It will probably be the biggest race we’ve ever had,” Ballinger said.