Hampden girls, MDI boys win PVC crowns Ellsworth’s Dewitt, Brewer’s Clark top finishers

BANGOR – For the two large school champions at Saturday’s soggy Penobscot Valley Conference cross country championship meet, the importance of coming away with victories could not be overstated.

The Hampden Academy girls, who had all their runners healthy for the first time in weeks, finally got a maroon-and-gray monkey off their backs as they defeated Ellsworth for the first time in four meetings this season.

In the boys race, Mount Desert Island – which hasn’t had the same kind of hindrances to battle through as Hampden’s girls – had a statement to make as well as they continued to build on their season-long success and go from a fifth-place PVC finish last year to the top of the heap this time around.

In the small-school meet, the boys from Piscataquis of Guilford and the girls of Foxcroft Academywere the champs.

Individually, Brewer’s Heather Clark continued a dominant senior season, as did Ellsworth’s Joey Dewitt. Neither allowed the rain, which alternated between sprinkles and cloudbursts, or the lung-sucking wind deter them from being the first runners to cross the finish line.

“For me it’s not really the worst conditions. I think these are some of the best conditions to run in,” said Clark while peeking out of a hooded sweatshirt she couldn’t get on fast enough. “Everyone’s excited and it’s raining, but there’s nothing you can do about it, so you just take what you have and go with it.”

Clark and her teammates had another way to beat the conditions as they applied a special oil on their skin to help with the cold and rain.

Dewitt had no oil, but he cruised over the 3.1-mile course in 16 minutes, 40 seconds nonetheless. The time isn’t what he necessarily had in mind, but it was a course record nonetheless as organizers changed the course layout. Clark came in with a time of 19:12.

“The times were worse today, but I wasn’t expecting a personal best anyway,” Dewitt said. “It doesn’t get much worse than this, unless it’s snowing or something. I wasn’t expecting this much wind. The back part was the worst. It wasn’t so bad on the way back because it was mostly at my back.”

MDI’s Brendan Westphal finished four seconds behind Dewitt at 16:44.

The weather forced the Ellsworth junior to re-evaluate his plan of attack as he waited until the second mile to start taking control of the race.

“You can’t go by times and compare this to other races, you just have to go out and compete and win,” he said.

That’s exactly what the MDI boys did as the boys charged out in a green-and-white pack and pretty much finished the same way as five Trojans were among the top 11 finishers in second, sixth, seventh, eighth and 11th place.

The Trojans easily outdistanced runner-up Brewer, 34 points to 89. Without top runner Chris Blackstone, who transferred from Caribou to Presque Isle last week, the Vikings finished third with 95 points and Hampden Academy was fourth with 110.

After Westphal, the rest of the MDI convoy included Aaron Stevens (17:07) in seventh, Jake Emlen (17:16) eighth, Berkley Wanner (17:18) ninth, and Joe Barter (17:38) in 12th place.

It wasn’t quite as emphatic a win for the PCHS Pirates, who had five runners among the top 18 and scored 63 points to finish ahead of Mattanawcook Academy. The Lynx of Lincoln scored 81, Sumner of East Sullivan had 87, and Bucksport scored 96 in the boys small school standings.

In the girls meet, the Broncos’ top two runners finished fourth and fifth and the top five were among the top 24 finishers as they scored 63 points to beat second-place Bangor (88). Ellsworth, which was missing top runner Lacey Dow to sickness, was third at 100.

“We’ve been waiting for this awhile now. They’ve been beating us all season, so we really wanted to have a good race today,” said Molly Balentine, who finished fifth overall (19:58). “This gives us a lot of confidence going into Easterns and states, but they didn’t have their top runner, so we’ll see.”

Neither team ever seems to have its full complement when HA and Ellsworth hook up.

“It’s a close battle every time with those guys,” said Ellsworth coach Andy Beardsley. “Hampden got us today. They were tough. Maybe the next one, we’ll have both teams healthy for a change.”

In the last meeting, Hampden was missing top runner Oriana Farley, who has been battling a respiratory ailment all season.

Farley finished fourth (19:55) Saturday for a second straight solid outing.

“Every week it seems like we’re missing a piece of the puzzle, but it’s nice to get a win under our belt because we need this going into championships,” Farley said. “I think this is a strong indication we’re going to improve from here on out.”

Hampden’s Shelly Estes was 15th at 21:13, Amanda Gervasi 17th (21:18), and Melissa Estes 25th (21:44).

The Foxcroft Academy Ponies scored 40 points to win their second straight small school (Classes C-D) title. The Ponies finished ahead of Mattanawcook Academy (46) and Bucksport (47).

Old Town freshman Cassie Hintz was runner-up overall to Clark with a time of 19:30.