Brewer girls, Bangor boys take track titles

ORONO – As Saturday’s Eastern Maine Indoor Track League Black Bear Relays wound down, Brewer coach Jamerson Crowley peered at an empty corner on the far side of the track that was packed with enthusiastic teams only a few minutes before.

“You saw on this corner here how excited all the teams got. It’s great,” the third-year Witches coach said. “We were there, Bangor was, Hampden was, Central, Old Town.”

It’s a track and field tradition for teams to gather on a specific corner of the track to cheer on their teammates in the meet’s final event, which in Saturday’s case was the 4×440 meter relay, as opposed to the 4×220 in a regulation EMITL competition.

The teams had a right to be enthusiastic during Saturday’s meet, as the Brewer girls collected their first Black Bear Relay team championship since the 2002-2003 season, and the Bangor boys captured their fourth straight.

One thing that many coaches enjoy about the meet is that all the athletes get a chance to run a race – even shot-putters, who competed in a 4×1-lap race.

“They look forward to it, they want to go out there and run,” said Crowley. “It’s a fun event for them, they love it.”

Bangor coach Maynard Walton agreed.

“They had fun – I think that’s one of the [good] things, they enjoy themselves and that’s good, that’s part of it,” Walton added.

The meet featured open and relay events that are run in regular-season meets, such as the 4×880, 4×220, mile run, 55-meter dash and 55-meter hurdles, along with unique events such as the long sprint medley relay (440 yards, 220, 220, 880).

“It’s really nice to just get everyone together, it’s more like a team effort,” said Old Town standout Hilary Maxim after she, Ashleigh Madden, Lauren Keane and Erin St. Peter teamed up to break their own meet record in the long sprint medley.

“We got the record again, which was really nice – we’ve broken that the past three years,” Maxim added.

The Coyotes’ effort was among seven meet records that were established.

Perhaps one of the toughest races on the schedule is the distance medley relay (880, 440, 1,320 yards and mile), in particular the third distance, which can be very difficult to pace.

“We have to ask runners to do things they’ve never done before, and it brings the best out of them,” Walton said.

For Crowley’s Brewer girls, Saturday’s meet gave the Witches a chance to compete against Bangor for the first time this winter, which was a great measuring stick for a team that scored 211 and 265 points in dominating its first two meets.

“That was great, our girls and boys both stepped up and had great meets,” Crowley said. “Whenever you compete against them, you better have a great meet.”

That was the case for Brewer on the girls’ side Saturday, as the Witches won eight out of the 12 events in outdistancing the Rams 157 points to 116.

Three Brewer relay teams, the 4×880, the 3×55-meter shuttle hurdle and the shot-put team went on to set meet records in their respective events.

Bangor junior Dee Wilbur set an individual meet record in the 55 hurdles, clocking a 9.63.

On the boys’ side, Bangor went on to rack up 122 points to runner-up Brewer’s 87, while Orono finished third with 571/2.

Bangor standout Riley Masters anchored winning distance medley and 4×440 relays while cruising to a 4:31.87 victory in the mile.

John Bapst of Bangor standout Chris Fogler ran to a meet record in the 55 hurdles, finishing in 8.14 seconds. Sumner of East Sullivan’s Anthony Cultrera took the 55 dash in 7.0.

All in all, no matter what the scores read when it was all said and done, hundreds of Eastern Maine’s finest track athletes went home happy and proud of what they had accomplished.

“We kept scratching and clawing,” Crowley said of his boys’ team, which hung with the defending Class A state champion Rams throughout the night before Bangor pulled away late.

“We started running out of people toward the end, but we put up a fight. I’m very proud of their effort,” Crowley added.