Edward Little sweeps meets; Brewer girls set two records

BREWER – With the May sun still high in the sky and her day’s work behind her, Brewer senior Lisa Patterson congratulated three teammates on Saturday afternoon and got ready to catch a few rays.

“Two records. Two batons,” Patterson said with a smile, referring to the trophy batons winning teams receive at the Brewer Invitational Relay Carnival. “The distance girls are done for the day.”

It was quite a day for the Brewer distance squad, as seniors Patterson and Heather Jovanelli teamed with sophomore Heather Clark to help break two records in impressive fashion.

The trio teamed with freshman Melissa Jacobs to pare a gaudy 27 seconds off the distance medley mark, then got a solid leg from Leslie Rosa while peeling six seconds off the 4 x 800 mark set in 1985.

Though this year marked the first year of what organizers call “The B.I.R.C.,” records exist from the 1980s and ’90s, when Eastern Maine’s big relay meet existed as either the MDI Relays or the PVC Relays. Those records have been absorbed as B.I.R.C. marks.

This year’s meet marked a return to a competitive atmosphere: teams scored points and a team trophy was awarded for the first time in several years.

The Edward Little of Auburn boys and girls swept team honors. The Red Eddies won eight of the 15 girls events and piled up 156 points. Brewer finished second with 83 while Old Town had 80, Hampden Academy had 65 and Presque Isle and Caribou tallied 37 each.

In the boys meet, Edward Little captured seven first-place finishes, won all of the track events except for the shuttle hurdles relay, and scored 127 points while Old Town scored 98. Brewer had 83, Hampden tallied 76, Presque Isle finished with 39 and Caribou had 28.

Organizer Dave Jeffrey envisions a day when teams flock to an ultra-competitive version of “The B.I.R.C.” On Saturday, the top goal was to make the meet easily understandable for spectators.

Jeffrey accomplished that by supplying play-by-play of each race, slow and fast heats included, throughout a fast-moving meet.

“It was intended to be a spectator event, with someone announcing races and understanding the significance of what was going on in events,” Jeffrey said. “You don’t really ever get that as a track fan. You just kind of watch the races and you see great things, but you’re not really sure what they mean.”

Old Town coach Rod White said that because of the new competitive atmosphere, and the presence of some talented teams, he approached the meet a bit differently this year.

“We talked yesterday about this being the first in a series of championship meets,” White said.

The day’s most impressive performances included the distance medley win by the Brewer girls and the Edward Little boys’ assault on the oldest record in the B.I.R.C book in the 4 x 800 relay.

The Red Eddies squad of Nate Cleveland, Sam Fletcher, Jared Kuvaja and Jeff Caron turned in a blistering 8:16.14, which surpassed the 21-year-old record 8:20.5 set by Brewer’s Scott Marsters, Glen Holyoke, present Brewer distance coach Glendon Rand and John Condon in 1980. The Brewer record withstood 20 years of challenges even though it was set at the longer 4 x 880 yard distance.

And in the girls distance medley, the Brewer girls got personal bests from Patterson and Jacobs at 800 and 400 before turning the baton over to sophomore Clark for the 1,200-meter leg. She ran three laps at about a 5:10 mile pace, which allowed Jovanelli to inherit a 10-meter lead over Edward Little – and defending state Class A 1,600 champ Anne Martin – for the four-lap leg.

Jovanelli turned in a blistering 5:13.8 leg to extend that lead to 50 meters by the finish. Jovanelli’s fastest 1,600 in a non-relay is 5:16.97.

Martin was impressed by Jovanelli’s effort.

“We had a meet yesterday and we’re all a little tired and sore, but Jovanelli just ran an amazing run,” Martin said. “I’m completely astounded. She’s incredible. I’m just glad that I ran as well as I did.”

Edward Little also set a record of 3:50.89 in the boys freshman medley with its team of Jamie White, Will Claxton, Ryan Tardif and Sam Fletcher. The EL girls pole vault team of Meghan Kohlmeyyer, Ally Thomas and Kara Forgues cleared a record cumulative height of 24 feet, 6 inches, and Kohlmeyer had three narrow misses at 10-6, which is higher than the existing Class A state record.

Brewer’s Nick Coffin set a facility record in the shot put with a heave of 51 feet, 91/2 inches, and his squad finished just 93/4 inches short of the record set in 1981 by Bucksport.