Brewer preps for postseason with sweep

ORONO – Considering the fact it’s the mid point of the Eastern Maine Indoor Track League regular season and there are still two meets left before postseason begins, Saturday’s Penobscot Valley Conference-EMITL meet wouldn’t seem that critical at first glance.

However, for the coaches and athletes involved in the big- school portion of Saturday’s dual meet at the University of Maine field house, it was every bit as important as a championship event.

The Brewer girls and boys engineered an impressive sweep of Saturday’s “A” meet to ensconce themselves in the league catbird seats and gain a lot of confidence in the process.

Brewer’s boys seized control of a very tight meet late with points gained in the distance (mile, two-mile) races, but it was their performances in the field events that made the difference in a 126.5-point outing that left them 30 points ahead of runner-up Hampden Academy.

Meanwhile, the girls were even more impressive despite the absence of top distance runner Heather Clark and her probable 30-point output as the Witches notched a lot of personal bests en route to a 126-point day and a 32-point win over second-place Bangor.

In the “B” meet, the Sumner boys of East Sullivan and the Foxcroft Academy girls notched wins. Sumner outscored Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln 87-79 and the Ponies of Dover-Foxcroft edged Hermon 109-104.5.

“It’s a yardstick meet,” said Brewer track coach David Jeffrey. “For us, it’s a highlight every year. This is a real point for us to be able to see where we’re at. We still have a long way to go and have some improving to do, but today we did pretty well against teams we have to do well against.”

Saturday’s meets had a message for all the coaches and their teams.

“Based on what I’ve seen, the Brewer girls are the team to beat,” said Hampden coach David King. “As far as the boys, that could come down to the wire. I wouldn’t want to bet my pension on it.”

“This week and next are the key parts of the season,” said Bangor track coach Maynard Walton. “The way I see it, we have to make up a 12- to 15-point difference before the postseason starts.”

The Brewer girls were missing Clark, who was competing at the prestigious Dartmouth Relays, but it barely showed.

Junior Danielle Lainez got things off to a good start by running a personal-best 9.0 seconds and beating top seed McKenzie Rawcliffe of Hampden in the 60-yard hurdles.

“People are setting their expectations higher for this meet because it’s like we’re already in debt 30 points with Heather away, so a lot of people are shooting for personal bests,” said Lainez, who also won the pole vault and finished second in the triple jump.

Sophomore Rachel Clark, Heather’s sister, followed by finishing two spots higher than her seeding with a second place in the mile run.

“I was almost afraid to run because I’m used to running with [Heather] and seeing her in front. I’m used to using her as a guideline,” said Rachel Clark. “It’s a loss for us, but it also kind of makes it so we know we have to do that much more. This taught me I could do it myself and I didn’t need her to help me all the time.”

Clark also finished fifth in the 800 and ran the second leg for Brewer’s third-place 880-yard relay team.

Other Brewer standouts were Erica Commeau, who won the high jump and was second in the long jump; Jill Weeks (second, high jump); Andrea Economy (second, pole vault); and Becca Breau (second, 200).

“I PR’ed in the 200, which I wasn’t expecting,” Breau said. “This proves to us we really do have what it takes even though we still have lots of work to do.”

Brewer’s boys used a traditional Bangor weapon to win: depth. The Witches had just two firsts in individual events (Robert Gray had both in the long and triple jumps), one relay event win (4-by-880), and two second-place finishes. The other 80.5 points came from 22 finishes in the third through sixth slots.

“We were dead-even coming out of the 800,” said junior Peter McGuire. “We just have a lot of depth on our team, which helped us out in the long run.”

Just three points separated the top three teams after eight events had concluded.

“There’s no such thing as a comfort margin in a track meet,” said Jeffrey. “Yeah, we were up by enough so the relay didn’t matter, but you just don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s almost like, at the end of the meet, you look at the score to see where you are.”