MDI girls have talent to make push for crown

BAR HARBOR – The Mount Desert Island girls track and field team has finished second in the Penobscot Valley Conference championships the last two seasons, and the Trojans are hungry for more this year.

MDI appears to have the talent and depth to give conference challengers Brewer and three-time reigning champion Bangor a run come late May, led by record-holding junior sprinter Danielle Hutchins and junior distance runner Heather Spurling.

“We’ve got good numbers, got some talent; we’ll see how that works for us,” said coach Ian Braun after dishing out uniforms before Tuesday afternoon’s practice.

“We only lost one girl from the state and PVC meets that scored [Sue Falt], so we’ve got a lot of big meet scorers back,” Braun added.

The Trojans should be sound in the sprinting and technique events with Danielle Hutchins, along with sister Marcelle, a senior, and hurdler Mercedes Frazier, the defending conference champion in the 300 hurdles, leading the way.

The key will be Danielle Hutchins, who owns PVC records in the 100 (12.55 seconds), 200 (25.97) and 400 (58.79). She is the defending conference champ in those events, in addition to the long jump.

“When you can add up those first-place wins that always helps out quite a bit,” Braun said. “We’ve been fortunate to have her, she’s been able to garner us a lot of points at [the] championship-meet level.”

Classmate Spurling is another veteran who has big-meet experience in both track and field and cross country, having played an instrumental role on the Trojans’ state-championship cross country team in 2006 and scoring valuable points in the mile and two-mile last spring.

Kaylin Russell, a freshman who had a solid cross country campaign last fall for distance coach Kate Goupee, will also key MDI’s distance corps.

Marcelle Hutchins, who scored in the 100 in last year’s PVC championships in addition to winning the triple jump, is participating in a senior project in which she’s helping children in her native Africa.

She decided to partake in the project after viewing a documentary called “Invisible Children of Africa,” which shows the plight of children in Uganda who are forced to fight in a war in that country that’s now 22 years old.

“After I saw the movie I was moved by it, it was a real eye-opener, so I decided to do it for a project,” said Hutchins, who came to Maine from Cameroon in 1997, followed by Danielle about a year and a half later.

She added that Invisible Children, a nonprofit organization, was founded in 1987.

In order to reach the plateau of success in the PVC, MDI knows it will have to go through Brewer and Bangor, both of which are expected to field strong squads this year.

“We have a lot of respect for those two programs. They’ll be tough,” said Braun. “I’d throw Old Town in there as well. They have Hilary Maxim so they’re going to score some points, too.”

Since a number of students tend to go on vacation with their families during April vacation, when the first couple of regular-season meets are held, Braun is looking at the big picture.

“We don’t really worry about the meets in April and the first of May, we don’t put a lot of stock into early-season meets as far as trying to win the meet,” he explained. “We’re mainly trying to get the kids to where they need to be at the end of the year.”

Other key contributors for MDI will be 1600 racewalkers Harmony Bell and Aeryn Arquette, both of whom scored in the PVC championships last year.

The Trojans will also field Sara Albee in the racewalk, who cracked the 11-minute barrier last spring.

USATF Clinic in Gorham Sunday

If anyone missed last weekend’s USA Track and Field Officials’ Clinic in Orono, the Maine Association of USATF will be conducting another in Gorham on Sunday.

This clinic will be held at the Gorham Community Center, next to Gorham High School, from 1 to 4 p.m. Master official and Certification Chair for Maine USATF Don Berry will direct the proceedings.

The clinic is free, and track and field rule books will be provided for those who don’t have one, but anyone who owns one is encouraged to bring it.

Anyone interested in attending should email Jason Tanguay at jasont@gorhamschools.org.

rmclaughlin@bangordailynews.net

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