ORONO – The Bangor boys indoor track and field team found themselves in an unusual predicament during Friday night’s Eastern Maine Indoor Track League meet at the University of Maine field house.

The Rams, who breezed through the league last year, found themselves in a dogfight with archrival Brewer.

“They were just picking up every garbage point they could. They’re a great team,” said Bangor senior Riley Masters.

Masters picked up pivotal individual victories in the 800 and 2 mile while Sean Seekins added a late victory in the pole vault and second in the triple jump as the Rams pulled out a tough 91-79 victory.

Hampden Academy was second in the five-team field with 56 points, followed by Orono (33) and Old Town (31).

The Brewer girls enjoyed their fourth dominating performance in as many meets, outdistancing Bangor 133-81 and making a statement that they want to bring the EMITL trophy back to Brewer.

“Our goal is to win the league this year,” said third-year Witches coach Jamerson Crowley, who got individual victories from Katie Snow, MacKenzie DeGraff, Kaitlin Noyes and Kira Giroux, all juniors.

Old Town finished third with 35 points, Orono fourth with 29 and Hampden fifth with 12.

In the boys meet, Masters, who breezed to a blazing 2-minute, 3.98-second victory in the 800, wasn’t even sure he was going to run the 2 mile after limping through the end of the 800 with a tight hamstring.

But knowing what the team standings were at that point kept Masters from even thinking about scratching.

“I did it because of the team, and we needed the points,” Masters said. “I just kind of stuck behind [Orono’s Matt] Nadeau for a while. I just kind of took it with 800 to go.”

Masters was quick to point out the formidable effort the Witches put forth, in particular from sprinter Ben Sinclair, who won the 55-meter dash in 7.00 seconds, the 400 (52.77) and 200 (23.92).

“Our sprinters are talking about finding every way to beat him. The only way is to run faster,” said Masters, who also anchored Bangor’s winning 4×880 relay.

That’s not to say the Rams’ sprinters didn’t come through. Lonnie Hackett captured second in the 400 and third in the 200 while he, Kyle Vanidestine, Matt Kenny and Chris Illingworth ran to a 1:39.14 victory in the 4×220, which Bangor entered up by eight points.

Veteran Ram coach Maynard Walton acknowledged Brewer’s efforts.

“Brewer can be very proud, they challenged the boys. That’s what its all about,” he said.

In the girls meet, Brewer’s depth dominated the track events, in particular the distance races, where the Witches combined for 48 points in the 4×880-yard relay, mile, 800 and 2-mile.

“We have great depth to our team, we’re so strong in every area,” said senior sprinter Sarah Risser, who picked up third-place finishes in the 55-meter dash, 200-meter dash and ran third on the Witches’ victorious 4×220-yard relay.

“We keep putting up solid times each meet and we keep getting better,” Risser said.

Snow and Michelle Haluska ran to respective personal-bests in the mile and 2 mile, with Snow cruising to a 5:36.06 clocking in the mile while Haluska, a freshman, posted a 12:25.17 in the 2 mile.

Snow was aiming for that personal-best right off the bat in the mile, taking charge at the gun and running uncontested.

“I felt really good, I really wanted to get a good time and pushed myself really hard,” said Snow. “The last quarter was hard but I wasn’t going to let that stop me.”

Snow would finish second to Haluska in the 2 mile, while teammate Ashley Geiser, who was second in the mile, finished third.

The Witches dominated the sprints as well, with Giroux taking the 200 in 28.02, while Erika Cote was fourth.

“We’ve got pretty good coverage in a lot of events, we’ll continue to focus on improving and training hard,” Crowley said.

Giroux, Cote, Risser and Noyes capped the win with a 1:52.54 effort in the 4×220, a seasonal best.

Bangor’s Walton was especially happy with individual improvements across the board.

“We got surprises in the pole vault, high jump, and shot put,” Walton said. “If you don’t look at the team scores, there was some tremendous improvement. You’re seeing talent on talent and that’s exciting.

Dee Wilbur posted an impressive 9.40 in winning the 55 hurdles while Kendra Lenz outleaned Brewer’s DeGraff to take the 55 dash in 7.92.

However, Walton looked at the Witches’ performance and knows the EMITL title could go through Brewer.

“There’s no question about it. That was exciting to watch, those individuals. They’ve got a lot of nice talent,” he said of Brewer.

Old Town’s Lauren Keane outleaned Brewer’s Giroux to take the 400 while Erin St. Peter edged Noyes in the 800.

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