Brewer claims Class A regional crown Fraser, Sighinolfi help Witches earn first title since 1979

BELFAST – The last time the Brewer cross country team won an Eastern Maine boys championship, a former peanut farmer was the president, and the Witches’ top runner was a skinny kid named Glendon Rand.

That was 22 years ago.

On Saturday, the Witches tucked four runners in the top 10 and earned another EM Class A title. And there, at the center of it all, was the Brewer coach: A man named Glendon Rand.

“We won regionals when it wasn’t really a team championship,” Rand said. “They added up the scores to see who went to state meet, but there wasn’t a trophy involved or anything like that.”

On Saturday, the Witches got their trophy, as Ian Fraser, Chris Sighinolfi, David Haluska and Mike Evancheck went 6-8-9-10 and all seven Brewer runners finished ahead of Mount Ararat of Topsham’s fifth.

Rand said putting four runners in the top 10 was a huge surprise: The Brewer boys have only qualified for state meet competition once in his eight years, and though he thought the team could contend for a title, he didn’t expect the kind of performance he got.

“I wouldn’t have been surprised to have them in the top 20,” Rand said. “But [four in] the top 10 is shocking.”

That effort negated Mount Ararat’s 3-4-5 finish and gave Brewer a 58-72 win. Mt. Blue of Farmington finished third with 89 while Waterville (104), Cony (134) and Morse of Bath (145) all qualified for next week’s state championships.

Aaron Norton won the individual “A” crown, touring the 3.1-mile course in 16 minutes, 13 seconds.

The top 20 individual finishers in each meet also qualified for the state meet.

In Class B, Steve DeWitt set a course record of 15:59, his brother Joey finished sixth, and their Ellsworth Eagles rolled to a 43-70 win over runner-up Caribou. Belfast scored 83, while Mount Desert Island (110), Maranacook of Readfield (111) and Hampden Academy 155 also earned state meet berths.

In Class C, senior Alexander Brunton won individual honors in 17:21 and led perennial power Sumner of East Sullivan to a dominant win. The Tigers scored 25 points to Piscataquis Community of Guilford’s 75. Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln (87) and Foxcroft Academy (96) also advance.

And in Class D, Caleb Paul, a senior at Narraguagus of Harrington, won in 17:12, but the Machias Bulldogs won the team title with 75 points. Valley of Bingham was second with 84, Schenck of Millinocket took third with 87 and Narraguagus was fourth with 91. Forest Hills of Jackman had 130 and Washington Academy of East Machias scored 132 to round out the state meet qualifiers.

In Class B, the Eagles continued their late-season surge and topping rival Caribou for the second straight week after losing several early-season meets to the Vikes.

“I think we all had in our minds that the end of the season’s what really matters,” Steve DeWitt said. “[We thought] ‘We’ll let them do their thing early on, and slowly catch up to them.'”

The Eagles have done just that, and posted a comfortable win.

Coach Andy Beardsley said all the Eagles ran well, but No. 5 runner Anthony Jones had the best day, passing several runners in the final half mile and finishing 17th.

“The team didn’t come into the season in super shape,” Beardsley said. “Even Steven didn’t do near the training he’s done in the past, because his knee was bothering him.

“But [the season’s training] is starting to pay off,” he said.

In Class C, the Sumner boys spent much of the season competing in big meets against the likes of Ellsworth, Caribou and Brewer.

But on Saturday, with a field culled down to just eight similar-sized schools, the Tigers proved something … again: When this team picks on someone its own size, things often get ugly.

All five Sumner scorers – Brunton, Ryan O’Keefe, Dustin Young, Mike Clay and Greg Young – finished in the top 10.

“They did a wonderful job,” Sumner coach Becky O’Keefe said with a chuckle. “You want to knock on wood. You don’t want to count their chickens before they’re hatched. But I was confident that they could have a strong race here.”

In Class D, Paul and teammate Jeremy Tyler gave Narraguagus a 1-2 finish, but the Knights didn’t have the pack power to overcome the Bulldogs.

Machias got a fourth-place finish from sophomore Martin Holmes, an 11th from Lance Stuart and 17-24-25 finishes from Jason Falvey, Josh Smith and Scott Brokaw.