Defending a state championship is never easy in any sport, let alone track and field.

That task becomes even more arduous when you lose 57 points from your state-championship team.

That’s the challenge facing the Bangor High boys this winter. The Rams have only two returning scorers from the squad that won the program’s first Class A state championship.

“We lost all of them except three or four,” said coach Maynard Walton. “It will not be as strong as last year. I think we’ll be competitive. I’m anxious to see that.”

Walton will field a competitive team led by distance ace Riley Masters, sprinter Chris Illingworth and jumper Sean Seekins, yet he doesn’t see them piling on the points like they did last year with lead horses Casey Quaglia and Cam Cormier dominating the Eastern Maine Indoor Track League.

“Scoring 200 points, I don’t see any team out there doing that this year,” he said. “If we’re competitive then we’ll be successful.”

The Rams will need to be competitive and then some if they’re going to claim their fourth consecutive EMITL title, with 14 other schools out to knock Bangor off its pedestal.

Walton, who has 35 athletes out for the team, including 12 freshmen, knows most of Bangor’s points will be generated by Masters, one of the state’s top distance runners.

“You build your team around him, that’s what you do,” Walton said.

Along with Masters, the Rams have another top-notch distance threat in 800 specialist Steve Salinas, who was on the state champion 4×800-meter relay team a year ago.

After that, the sprinting and jumping events will be essential to Bangor’s success.

The Rams will need solid points out of Seekins in the high jump and pole vault, Illingworth in the 400 and 200 meters, and Kyle Vanidestine in the long and triple jumps.

It will be up to Walton’s top-notch coaching staff of jumping specialist Peter Sund and distance coach Jamie Cooke to help their athletes maximize their potential.

“The coaches will have to develop that talent. If they do, we’ll be in good shape. If not, it’ll be a long season,” Walton said.

The team with the most potential to dethrone Bangor could be cross-river foe Brewer.

Coach Jamerson Crowley fields another one of the conference’s top distance threats in Travis Blackmer, along with sprinter Ben Sinclair.

Sinclair will also be a threat on Brewer’s 4×200 relay, which was second in Easterns a year ago. Shun Sasaki will also be a formidable part of that team, as well as a 200-meter threat.

Regardless of how many points the Rams lost, Crowley knows Bangor is still the team to beat and his Witches can’t take them, or anybody, lightly.

“They had such a great team last year, they’re going to still be good,” he said.

Like his girls team, Crowley has formidable depth in all events.

“The same way as the girls, we have strength in a lot of areas,” he said.

“[We’re strong] in the jumps, sprints, [have] a good corps of distance runners and a good group of throwers back, so its spread out.”

Other runners to watch include Old Town’s David Falls and Graham Pearsall of Foxcroft Academy, both of whom had strong cross country campaigns.

Jingle Bell race sets record

Last weekend’s Jingle Bell 5K run in Freeport had a record number of finishers, as 495 runners and walkers completed the race.

Freeport running sensation Ethan Hemphill won the event for the fourth consecutive year. His effort of 15 minutes, 46 seconds, bested Michael Payson of Falmouth by six seconds.

Mandy Ivey, a former Oxford Hills of South Paris runner now competing at Colby College in Waterville, won the women’s race in 18:28. Sub 5 Track Club president Ryan King of Stockton Springs finished 24th overall and third in the 30-to-39-year-old age group in 18:59.

Ryan McLaughlin can be reached at 1-800-310-8600 or bdnsports@bangordailynews.net