Bapst girls’ track takes 4th title

BANGOR – The John Bapst girls’ track team ended their year as they have completed each season since 2002 – as Penobscot Valley Conference and state Class C champions. Though they dominated the conference meet, the state competition was a battle to the end against a determined and talented team from Cape Elizabeth. Ultimately, depth, a hallmark of the John Bapst track team, proved to be the difference in a 101-89 victory.

For three seniors, Katie Andrle, Elaine Colwell and Maggie Jones, the championship meant they never finished a season with a loss, having taken the title every year they’ve competed. For seniors Ali Stevens, Evelyn Sharkey and Nicole Lavertu, it was three crowns and for Courtney Martin, two.

Andrle, Colwell, Lavertu, Martin, Sharkey and junior Maddy Glover also qualified for the New England Championships, held in scorching heat in Saco on June 11. Andrle finished eighth in the 300 hurdles; Martin ninth in the 2-mile; and Glover, Lavertu, Martin and Sharkey 11th as the 4-by-800 meter team.

Though losses to graduation are enormous, juniors Maddy Glover, Erica Dougherty, Megan Pritham, Taylor Greenlaw and a host of other talented underclassmen will vie to keep the team’s winning streak alive. Only Winthrop has ever won five straight titles.

Counting both boys and girls, the John Bapst team qualified 48 athletes for the PVC meet – 10 percent of the school – and sent its largest team ever to the state meet in Westbrook. At the PVC meet, the boys’ team, the defending champions, finished third with a small, but determined, team.

Andrle graduates as the PVC and John Bapst Memorial High School record holder in the 300 hurdles. The 4-by-800 meter relay team of Glover, Lavertu, Martin and Sharkey shattered their own state record this year, improving their time by an astonishing 16 seconds.

Andrle will run at the University of Maine next year, Colwell at Springfield College, Lavertu at the University of New Hampshire, Martin at Bowdoin and Sharkey at Tufts. Martin and Lavertu, two of the state’s best cross-country skiers, have said they also may pursue that sport in college.