Brewer wins EMITL title, Bangor 2nd

ORONO – After grinding their way to an Eastern Maine Indoor Track League title on Saturday night, the Brewer boys milled around, trophy in their collective grasp, unsure of what to do next.

“Take a lap,” coach Dave Jeffrey said, repeatedly, trying to spur his team to take hard-earned victory tour of the University of Maine field house.

Eventually, the Witches caught on, and jogged – slowly, and silently – around the track.

That, in a nutshell, summed up Brewer’s Saturday.

The Witches struggled early, surged late, and figured out a way to outlast Bangor, 84-76. Mount Desert Island scored 38 points in the meet’s final three events to finish with 73. Ellsworth had 61. Orono (21) and Old Town (20) rounded out the top five.

“These kids as a team, had no clue what Easterns was like,” Jeffrey had said a few minutes earlier.

That’s because last year, all of the league’s teams missed out on the EMITL championship because of a snowstorm. Two years ago, nobody on this year’s team played a key role in the meet.

And on Saturday, that inexperience hurt a bit, Jeffrey said.

“I think that’s one reason we struggled so much. These guys were all new to this kind of meet,” Jeffrey said. “It’s great that they were able to get through it and win. It was tough.”

The Witches essentially put the meet away in the final events, as Justin Spencer, Frank Breau and Robbie Gray went 2-3-5 in the triple jump and Ian Fraser redeemed what had been a disappointing day with a fourth-place finish in the two mile. He had been disqualified from the mile for stepping on the inside line of the track for three consecutive strides after finishing third.

The triple jump and two-mile points gave Brewer a 10-point lead entering the relay. With only 10 points at stake for first place, the lead was pretty safe, Jon Dearborn admitted.

Dearborn, who won the 200 and 400 and ran the lead-off leg on the relay, said he and his teammates got some pretty simple instructions.

“Do the best you can, and don’t screw up,” Dearborn said with a laugh. “[We were told] to get the baton around the track, enjoy yourselves, have a good time and relax.”

The Witches did that, finishing third in the event.

Bangor senior Ben Allen won all three distance races to earn the meet’s outstanding performer award, and Greg Coladarci added a win in the 60. Coach Maynard Walton said he was pleased with the effort of his team.

“We ran better than I thought we would,” Walton said. “This season, since the second meet, has been like Murphy’s Law. If anything could go wrong, it went wrong. Sickness. Injuries. We did well today.”

MDI got a win from Liam McSweeney in the triple jump, a 1-2 effort from Robin Fernald and Ben Hewlett in the pole vault, and a win from its relay team en route to a strong third-place showing.

Ellsworth countered with a 28-point night from Adam MacBeth, who won the long jump on his last attempt, won the 60 hurdles in a sizzling 7.90, and finished second in the 200.

Brewer got a win from shot putter Nick Coffin and managed a 1-3 finish from Dearborn and David Patrick in the 400 after two athletes ahead of Patrick got tangled up on the final curve and fell down.

Dearborn said the best part about the win was the fact that people who didn’t expect to place ended up scoring points for the Witches.

In a close meet, that made the difference.

“We didn’t have a perfect meet, but we had some people who had the perfect meet,” Dearborn said. “It was the Robbie Grays and the David Patricks that mattered. They made a difference.”