John Bapst girls, NYA boys capture ‘C’ championships Crusaders collect fifth straight title

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DOVER-FOXCROFT – The rains finally went away, the sun came out, and the state Class C track and field championships proved to be worth the wait Tuesday after two postponements as some history was made.

The John Bapst of Bangor girls won their fifth straight state title, a feat that has only been accomplished twice since 1973 (Winthrop 1995-99 in C, Scarborough 1994-98 in B), but this time, they had to scratch and claw for it.

“We deserve to be spoken in the same breath with those guys,” Bapst coach Bruce Pratt said.

The Crusaders led North Yarmouth Academy by a slim 58-55 margin after 12 events. However, after Maddy Glover, Robin Bosse, Maren Askins and Kristy Woods went 1-5-6-7 in the 3,200, Bapst turned out the lights on the Panthers.

The final margin was 106-71 on a picture-perfect afternoon at Oakes Field. Orono finished third with 56 points while Livermore Falls was fourth with 49 and Lisbon’s 46 rounded out the top five.

Pratt admitted he was “getting awful nervous” with his team holding a slim lead, but knew the Crusaders had points coming in the triple jump, pole vault and 3,200.

“I knew NYA was good. What I figured would have to happen was we’d have to score some points in the pole vault,” he said.

Angel Nelligan and Jana Craig came up big for JB in the pole vault, with Nelligan taking fourth and Craig sixth while starting the Crusaders’ spurt.

It ended with Bapst racking up 16 points in the 3,200, led by Glover’s winning time of 11 minutes, 55.15 seconds. She also won the 1,600 (5:22.93) and was second in the 800 (2:25.88).

“I’m gonna miss her. It’s as if I was losing my own daughter. She’s fabulous,” Pratt said.

Pratt also credited junior Bosse, who was seeded eighth in the 3,200, for coming up big.

“She just ran a great race. I was just floored by how well she did,” he said.

Erica Dougherty was third in the 100 hurdles, led off the 4×400 relay team which finished third, was second in the triple jump, and third in the long jump.

Megan Sanford picked up a pivotal second place in the shot put with a heave of 33-1 while Megan Tilton was third in both the 100 and 300 hurdles.

Greenville junior Hannah Breton racked up 36 points (two first-place finishes, two seconds) in leading the Lakers to a sixth-place finish in the team standings.

Breton won two exciting hurdle races, edging Melissa Nguyen of Winthrop over the last hurdle to take the win in 16.54 seconds.

“I knew I had all the time that I needed as long as I made it over the last hurdle first,” Breton said.

She had a disadvantage in the 300 hurdles of being in lane two, but outsprinted Rachel Bergman of Orono down the homestretch, winning in 48.52.

“Once I got past the first couple rows [of hurdles] I listened for spikes more than anything,” Breton said. “Then I got to the end and I was just like, all right, time to relax.”

Breton had no complaints about the week-plus long layoff.

“Whatever, you know it happens, its nature,” she said. “We live in Maine, we can tough it out, we’re tough people.”

Breton and Bergman went toe-to-toe in the pole vault. Both vaulters cleared 9 feet and missed on three tries at 9-6, but Bergman was awarded the title by virtue of fewer misses at 9 feet.

Breton was also second in the long jump.

The boys meet went as expected, with North Yarmouth dominating the field.

The Panthers racked up 113 points to second-place Sacopee Valley of Hiram’s 78.5. Lisbon was third with 77.5, Winthrop fourth with 49 and Hall-Dale of Farmingdale fifth with 48.

PVC champ Orono was sixth with 38 points and Bucksport seventh with 32.

The Panthers dominated in all phases of the meet, starting off the day with Brian Chin, Esko Heilner and Dinch Kelesoglu going 2-4-5 in the 100.

“The boys treated every race like they had to win in order for us to win the meet,” said NYA coach Chris Mazzurco. “It was far from a given. The kids believed they needed to perform to their best to make it happen.”

Sophomore Pak Lul was NYA’s top point-scorer and he set a state record in the 400 with a time of 49.78 seconds. More importantly, Chin, who also won the 200, finished right behind Lul, who also won the 800 in 2:02.23 and ran third on the Panthers’ winning 4×400 team.

Eastern Maine athletes had plenty of good performances.

James Berry of Orono won both the pole vault (12-0) and 110 hurdles (15.97). Sumner of East Sullivan’s David Thomas captured the high jump with a leap of 6-2.

Jon Potvin of Fort Kent eked out a win in the triple jump, jumping 41-3.75 while Ian Macomber of LCS-MSSM took second in the shot put (44-5).