Quaglia, Clukey propel Bangor teams to sweep Young Ram runners set track records in Brewer

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BREWER – After a 20- to 30- minute power/rain delay halted a Penobscot Valley Conference track meet Friday afternoon, the times certainly came down as hard as the rains did.

That was best shown in the record-setting times Bangor High stars Casey Quaglia and Allie Clukey ran in the 800- and 100-meter races, respectively.

Clukey, a freshman, set a Pendleton Street Complex record with a time of 12.98 seconds, breaking the mark of 13.04 (12.8 hand-timed) that Eliza Parker from John Bapst in Bangor set in 1989.

Quaglia, a sophomore, narrowly broke former Brewer runner Phil LeBreton’s track record in the 800, which was set in 1990 (2 minutes, 1.94 seconds). Quaglia finished in 2:01.21, running a 60-second last lap to get the mark.

Parker’s time was actually 12.8, but it was hand-timed, and the 13.04 is the adjusted time if the current FinishLynx high-tech timing system would have been used in 1989, according to PVC meet director Mary Cady.

The Rams captured both team titles, the boys 172-86 over runner-up Bucksport and the girls 204-78 over second-place and host Brewer.

The Class C Golden Bucks’ boys edged the Class A Witches by one point for second, 86-85. Nokomis of Newport was fourth out of five teams with 27 while Calvary Chapel of Orrington scored 21.

Rounding out the field in the girls section were Nokomis with 43, Bucksport with 40, and Calvary Chapel with 3.

In the boys meet, the Bucks, the defending Class C state champs, showed that they can be competitive with the likes of Class A teams such as Brewer and Bangor.

“When you compete against a Class A team and you’re a Class C team, you want to step it up a notch,” said Bucksport coach Chris Jones. “I think running against better competition is great because when you get to that big meet, you’re running against the best competition anyway [at PVCs].”

The Bucks’ top scorer was senior standout Nick Tymozcko, who captured both hurdle races in 16.04 and 41.12 seconds, was third in the 200 (24.14) and led off the 4×100 relay team, which finished third.

Tymozcko likes his team’s chances in next week’s PVC title meet and is looking forward to a rematch with Matt LaCasse of Waynflete in Portland at the state title meet.

“I think we’ve got a great team, and we’ve got really high standards,” the Springfield College-bound senior said.

Tymozcko also had to adjust to the ever-changing weather conditions.

“It’s hard for your body going from hot to cold, hot to cold,” he said. “You don’t really know how to adjust to it.”

The Rams covered events well in taking the team crown, but coach Joe Quinn was looking to sew up spots in next week’s PVC meet.

“We had a couple kids that we were still looking to get qualified, which we did today,” Quinn said. “We also wanted to get a couple kids in better position in certain events.”

In addition to winning the 800, Quaglia locked horns with Brewer junior Brendan Carr in the 1600, running stride-for-stride through the first three laps before the Rams’ sophomore pulled away with a 62-second last lap to win in 4:32.05.

“Casey and Carr have always had a little rivalry together and I think it helps him [Quaglia] run a lot better,” Quinn said. “He had a great meet, he did get the [track] record, which was actually great.”

Other Bangor winners were Sidney Melidones in the 100, Cameron Cormier in the 200, Riley Masters in the 3200, and Nick Buchanan in the high jump.

Carr was second in the 1600 (4:37.94) and 800 (2:03.39).

In the girls meet, Clukey, who has been excelling in local youth track programs since sixth grade, blazed through the raindrops to set the track mark.

In addition to that, the Bangor freshman took the 200 (27.31), ran second on the winning 4×100 relay team, and took the long jump with a leap of 15 feet, 6 inches.

“It was all right I guess,” Clukey said of the track record in the 100.

“She’s having a good year,” Quinn said of his freshman sensation.

Clukey would have plenty of help from her teammates as Bangor took every event on the track except the 300 hurdles and 400.

All-around star Jolene Belanger, who took the triple jump (32-1.25) and was second in the long jump, was placed in the 800 for the first time all season and ran to a second-place time of 2:31.03, four seconds behind teammate Jennie Lucy (2:27.36). She also anchored the winning 4×400 relay team.

“She’s [Belanger] been jumping real well,” Quinn said. “She hadn’t run the open 800; she’s run the 4×800, but we wanted an open time for her.”

Bangor’s Kelly Kraph was second in both the 100 and 200 and ran on the winning 4×100 and 4×400 teams while Stephanie Dickey of Brewer took the shot put and discus.