Later this month, Old Town High School distance ace Hilary Maxim will compete in the Penobscot Valley Conference track and field championships in Presque Isle, hoping for another strong performance in what has been a memorable senior year of running.

Less than 24 hours later, Maxim will switch from the role of competitor to race director.

Maxim will coordinate the Race for Autism in Old Town on June 1, an event she is putting on as part of an English project.

“We have to write a paper and present [it] to our English class, then we need a physical part. The race is my physical part,” Maxim explained.

The race will start just after noon at Old Town Elementary School on Stillwater Avenue, with registration kicking off at 10:30 a.m. and a 1-mile fun run preceding the 5K.

The preregistration fee is $12 and $15 on race day with all proceeds from the race benefiting the Autism Society of Maine.

After working last summer at Camp Coyote, a summer camp in Old Town for middle-schoolers, Maxim got a brainstorm for this project while drawing some interest from a young camper.

“There was an autistic boy there who really intrigued me and I wanted to learn more about it,” she said.

Coupling her sport with the fundraiser was the icing on the cake.

“I think that’s what’s great about this project, I got to tie in running with it,” she said. “Raising money for autism is a plus on top of that. I’m really excited about it, I’m hoping a lot of people show up.”

Maxim is doing her best to get the word out to area runners and even track and field coaches. While applications are available on the Sub 5 track club’s Web site, www.sub5.com, Maxim had Mary Cady, one of the state’s top track and cross country officials, send some to all of the conference’s track coaches.

Maxim said two people have preregistered so far. The first 50 to sign up will receive a T-shirt.

Selecting a date was probably the hardest part of the process for Maxim, as she had to maneuver around end-of-the-year activities such as proms, graduations and graduation parties.

“It was hard to figure in a day to do it. That was the best one,” she said of the Sunday afternoon choice.

Old Town Elementary School pupils who compete in the 1-mile fun run will receive extra incentive. The students there are doing a “Walk Across America,” where students attempt to walk and/or jog the equivalent of miles from Maine to California.

“Their principal said it will count double for the kids, [if they] run the mile they will get two towards going across America,” Maxim said.

Arrtesani, Cyr set records

Former Orono High School track and field star Emily Artesani broke her own University of Southern Maine records not once, but twice at last weekend’s New England Division III championships.

Artesani snapped her 400- and 200-meter records in leading the Huskies to a 12th-place finish at the event.

She clocked a 58.05 in capturing the 400, breaking her personal best and school record of 58.33 she had set a week before at the Little East championships.

Artesani followed that up by shaving .03 seconds off her 200 record, placing second in 25.65. Her previous mark was 25.68, established in May 2007 at the NEIcAAA championships.

Fort Kent native Gabby Cyr got in on the record-breaking fun in the New England championships, breaking the USM record in the 1,500 meters.

Cyr clocked an 11th-place time of 4 minutes, 45.67 seconds, snapping the record of 4:47.34 set by Sara Marzouk in 2005.

Black Bears on the run

University of Maine track standouts Rebecca Even, Allyson Howatt and Vicki Tolton, all of whom had strong performances at last weekend’s America East championships, have qualified for major competitions.

Even, a freshman, placed second in the hammer throw with a heave of 158 feet, 8 inches. That mark not only punched her a ticket to the ECAC championships, but the USA Junior Track and Field championships at Ohio State University’s Jesse Owens Stadium.

Sophomore sprinter Howatt, who won the 100- and 200-meter dashes and anchored the Black Bears’ winning 4×400 relay to capture Outstanding Track Performer honors last weekend, qualified for the Canadian Olympic Trials with her 11.96 effort in the 100 and 24.17 performance in the 200.

The trials will be held July 3-6 at Windsor, Ontario.

Tolton, a junior middle distance runner, will join Howatt at the Canadian trials.

Tolton’s winning 400-meter dash time of 55.94 earned her a berth in the competition.

rmclaughlin@bangordailynews.net

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