Brewer girls, Bangor boys favorites in EMITL

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Bangor High distance ace Riley Masters and the Brewer girls and boys teams have geared up for their respective Eastern Maine Indoor Track League openers tonight and Friday by competing in preseason meets.

The Witches ran at the Bowdoin College Relays last weekend in Brunswick while Masters competed at the Harvard Open Invitational earlier this month.

The league will also welcome a new competitor in Central High of Corinth, bringing the number of teams up to 15.

Here’s a check of how the teams may do this season.

The Brewer girls, who placed sixth out of 14 teams in a competitive Bowdoin Relays field which included meet champ and Class B power Greely of Cumberland Center and reigning Class A champ Scarborough, get the nod over four-time defending champion Bangor.

Coach Jamerson Crowley’s club should cover all events very well with their depth, and veteran Bangor coach Maynard Walton acknowledged recently that the Witches will be the team to beat this winter.

Brewer will have plenty of ammunition at its disposal, and its strengths will be in the relays, hurdles, sprinting and jumping events.

Their sprinting and jumping corps will be boosted by the arrival of junior MacKenzie DeGraff, with Colleen Carr, Carolynn Tuck and Erika Cote heading up the hurdle crew. Tuck will also be a factor in the long and high jumps.

DeGraff and Sarah Risser will lead the sprints, along with 400-meter threat Carr and 200/relay specialist Kira Giroux.

Giroux is also a solid shot putter, and Kaitlin Noyes will provide key points in the pole vault and possibly the mid-distance events and 4×800 relay.

Brewer also has plenty of depth in its distance corps, many of which had strong cross country seasons this fall. That will enable Crowley to employ different quartets in the 4×800 on a weekly basis.

The Witches must use that depth to their advantage and pick up the “garbage points,” i.e., fourth-, fifth- and sixth-place finishes.

That has been Bangor’s championship-winning formula over the last four winters, and that’s how they’ll have to do it this year without ace Jennie Lucy, the defending Eastern Maine 400- and 800-meter champion.

Walton has plenty of returning talent, led by hurdler Dee Wilbur, sprinter Brittney Chapman, sprinter/jumper Kendra Lenz and jumpers Becca Bogan, Catherine LeClair and Robin Treadwell.

The triple jump and high jump will be pivotal events for the Rams, who will also need key performances out of distance runners Lindsey Mercier and Rachel Huber to counter Brewer’s depth in those events.

Old Town is certainly a team to watch out for, and as long as the Coyotes have Hilary Maxim, arguably the league’s top distance runner, they have the firepower to contend come February.

In addition to Maxim, coach Rod White’s team will be led by sprinter Ashleigh Madden and jumper Samantha Kitchen, the reigning EMITL long jump champ.

In the end, Brewer seems to have the depth and talent of a championship team, but it’ll no doubt be a dogfight between these three. All three teams are well coached, so it should be fun to watch.

Mount Desert Island boasts one of the state’s top high jumpers and the defending league champion in that event, Mariah Grover, and Hampden Academy is young with good potential.

Now for the boys.

Bangor had a storybook season last winter, culminating with the program’s first Class A state championship.

The challenge facing the Rams this winter is replacing the 54 individual points that graduated seniors Casey Quaglia, Cam Cormier, Robert Seccareccia and Jimmy Clukey compiled in an exciting state-meet victory over Gorham last year.

The Rams still have Masters, who had an outstanding senior year of cross country and ran a strong 4-minute, 36-second mile at the Harvard Invitational.

The Rams will certainly need him to come up big if they are going to win their fourth consecutive EMITL title. They’ll also need solid performances from Stephen Salinas, an 800 specialist who will also key the 4×800, along with Kyle Vanidestine in the sprints and jumps, jumper Sean Seekins and sprinter Chris Illingworth.

Brewer will be the Rams’ chief challenger.

The Witches graduated top sprinter Kyle Allcroft but have some solid firepower in sophomores Ben Sinclair and Tyler Kingsbury, seniors Shun Sasaki, as well as a deep distance corps led by senior Travis Blackmer.

Bangor does get the edge here, but it will certainly be competitive, unlike a year ago when the Rams ran roughshod over everybody in the league.

Individuals looking to have outstanding campaigns include distance runners Graham Pearsall of Foxcroft Academy and David Falls of Old Town and jumper/hurdler Chris Fogler of John Bapst of Bangor.

Best of luck to all the coaches, athletes and teams on a successful season. And let’s hope Mother Nature doesn’t interfere with any meets.

bdnsports@bangordailynews.net

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