BREWER – This early in the track and field season, coaches tend to preach quality over quantity to their athletes.

Sure, the Brewer girls and boys ran to victories in a multi-team Penobscot Valley Conference affair at Pendleton Street Field Friday, but many athletes clocked quality times while others were happy to get on the track for the first time this spring.

Fort Kent’s Jamie Pelletier falls into both those categories. The Warriors’ sprinter had herself a solid day, winning the 100- and 200-meter dashes with times of 13.22 and 27.47, respectively.

“It was pretty good considering up home we don’t have a track [and] we have a lot of snow,” said Pelletier.

The dirt track that the Warriors practice on is still covered with snow, so Pelletier and her teammates are still relegated to practicing in the gym, parking lot and heritage trails behind the school.

Pelletier, the defending Class C state champion in the 100, took advantage of a sprinter-friendly tailwind in both races while drawing a lane next to Brewer star Kira Giroux in the 200.

“I like it when fast people are next to me, then I feel like it’ll push me to do better,” said Pelletier, who later ran a 67-second split on the 4×400 relay.

Brewer got two individual wins from Carolynn Tuck and Mackenzie DeGraff and another from Giroux en route to winning the team title in their second meet of the season.

The Witches piled up 186 points despite missing several key athletes on school-related functions, to runner-up Caribou’s 129 in the 10-team field.

“We had some good performances, Mackenzie had a good day, Kira had a good day, we had a lot of good competition here today so it was exciting,” said Brewer coach Jamerson Crowley.

John Bapst of Bangor took third with 123 points, Fort Kent finished fourth with 34 and George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill rounded out the top five with 33.

Giroux cruised to victory in the 400 in 63.39 seconds while anchoring the Witches’ winning 4×400 and running second on the victorious 4×100, which DeGraff anchored.

DeGraff, who won the long and triple jumps with marks of 15 feet, 4.25 inches and 33-6, is giving a hurdles a shot this spring.

Even though she stumbled slightly over the final hurdle, its only a matter of time before she has everything down technically.

“We’ve been working on that event with her, she enjoys it,” Crowley said. “She’s still got some things technically she needs to work on.”

Tuck cleared 4-8 to win the high jump while taking the hurdles in 17.59. Caitlyn Wilson won the javelin with a toss of 99 feet, 7 inches while Michelle Haluska and Ashley Geiser finished 1-2 in the 3200 meters and Tara Geaghan won the shot put.

Giroux and DeGraff teamed up with Rylee Hutchins and Tuck on the winning 4×100 and Aline Michaud, Brooke Madden and Wilson with Giroux on the 4×4.

Other individual winners included Caribou’s Mary Jo Sheehan in the 1600, teammate Karyn King in the 300 hurdles, Piscataquis of Guilford’s Victoria Tracy in the 800, Verronika Cousins of George Stevens in the discus, and John Bapst’s Angel Nelligan in the pole vault.

In the boys’ meet, Brewer registered 164 points to complete the sweep while Bapst was second with 124 and Caribou third (122).

Penquis of Milo was fourth with 33 points and Piscataquis Community fifth out of nine teams with 31.

Another sprinter who took advantage of the fast homestretch was Brewer’s Ben Sinclair.

The Witches’ sophomore, who said he hopes to crack the 50-second barrier in the 400 this spring, easily won that event with a 52.68 clocking while coming back to win the 200 in 23.29.

The tougher race of the two was the 400, since Sinclair had to deal with a headwind on the backstretch.

“Coming up here it was bad but on the homestretch it helped me a lot,” said Sinclair, who also anchored the Witches’ 4×100 and 4×400 relays to victories.

Brewer’s other individual winners were Jamie Williamson’s 11.60 effort in the 100 and Evan Taylor’s 5:01.64 finish in the 1600.

“We’re pretty excited for our boys to win this meet,” Crowley said. “Caribou’s a team that always is outstanding, John Bapst was impressive with the boys today too.”

Crusaders’ star Chris Fogler earned individual victories in the high jump (5-8), triple jump (39-3) and 300 hurdles (41.04) after setting a facility record of 15.10 in the 110 hurdles.

George Stevens’ Cole Larson-Whittaker went on to win the 3200 while Fort Fairfield’s Noah Rush-Mayberry took the 1600 race walk.

Kyle Steeves of PCHS outkicked Brewer’s Taylor to win the 800 while Penquis’ Joe Leland captured the long jump, Bapst’s Derek Smith the javelin and Micah Raymond the shot put, Luke Pomerleau of PCHS the discus and Carlin Dubay of Caribou the pole vault.

rmclaughlin@bangordailynews.net

990-8193

BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY KEVIN BENNETT

Caribou High School’s Carlin Dubay attempts to clear 12 feet in the pole vault during a multi-team track and field meet at Brewer’s Pendleton Street Field Friday afternoon. Dubay missed on his attempt but won the event with a vault of 11 feet, 6 inches.