Brewer High miler Heather Clark has a national ranking and will compete this weekend in a top meet, but it’s an unofficial time she ran this weekend that has her excited.

Clark, a senior on the Witches indoor track team, posted around a 5-minute, 7-second mile during a relay leg at the Phi Mu Delta Black Bear Relays at the University of Maine Saturday, about three seconds better than her previous indoor best of 5:10, which happens to be the Brewer High record.

The 5:07 – all the more impressive because she was lapping so many other runners she had to expend time running around them – won’t count for official purposes because it happened during a relay, but the time drop was fine nonetheless. Clark ran a 5:14.92 in a Dec. 21 meet.

“It’s very encouraging because it’s so early in the season,” she said. “It just comes with the training.”

Brewer coach Dave Jeffrey was keeping track of her pace throughout Saturday’s race. When he saw how fast she had started – 70 seconds for her first 400 yards – he didn’t tell her how she was doing at first.

“I didn’t want to scare her. I just said, ‘You’re doing great’,” he said. “Then she came through at 2:28 at the half and I told her her split. Then she came through three-quarters at 3:46, and 3:45 is 5-minute pace. It was an impressive time.”

Clark said her goal is to get under five minutes, and even into the 4:50s. Her best mile time is a 5:06, which she posted during last year’s outdoor season.

Clark is heading this weekend to the 34th annual Dartmouth Relays, where she is the 14th seed in the mile. Jeffrey wants to see her use the meet to run against good competition, which she doesn’t always see during EMITL meets.

“I think it’s going to make a lot of difference,” she said.

Clark is also listed as 11th in the DyeStat Elite rankings, but Jeffrey said she’s ranked that high because many kids across the country haven’t had a chance to run yet. Once that happens, he said, Clark’s ranking should drop – her 5:10 last year had her ranked at around 40th nationally.

The rankings don’t really matter as long as Clark’s times continue to drop. She’s aiming to run a sub-5 minute mile at some point this year, either in the winter or spring season, and is still trying to decide what to do about college.

“I’m looking for a really competitive program, not where I’m going to be the best but where I’m going to be amongst other good runners,” Clark said. “Florida State is kind of high on my list.”

Lifting program comes at right time

The Brewer swimming team has started to weight lifting program, and it’s come at a perfect time for Witches standout Mike Sighinolfi.

The Brewer senior, who placed in the top six in two events at the Class A state championships last year, is hoping to swim in college next year.

Sighinolfi took a recruiting trip to Hamilton College in New York, where he stayed with former Bangor High standout Tae Chung.

“Those guys all lift there and they were talking to me about it,” Sighinolfi said after a recent meet against Old Town. “So I thought it was a good time to do it. … It was like, might as well get started now, especially so I don’t look like a fool next year if I’m dropping weights everywhere.”

The Witches lift about three times a week, Sighinolfi said, under the guidance of former Brewer swimmer and current assistant coach Dave Noto, along with head coach Kathy Cahill and assistant coach Chris Hanlon, another former Witches swimmer.

Sighinolfi runs cross country in the fall and track in the spring, and doesn’t lift weights for either of those sports. And big muscles, for the most part, are discouraged in swimming. Still, Sighinolfi feels the program has helped him in the pool.

It was hard at the start, especially [last] week because of double [sessions],” he said. “It’s hard to go swimming in the morning, lifting, and then swimming at night. But on regular days you do feel stronger later on in practice now that we’ve been lifting.”

MBR expanding coverage

Basketball fans from all over New England will now be able to find information about their states and the New England prep school league at MBR.org.

The Web site, which is operated by Tom Nolette, is expanding beyond coverage of Maine basketball to include Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island and the New England Prep School Athletic Conference.

MBR.org already features schedules, statistics, event listings, a message board, links to previously published newspaper articles and original content.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.