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BANGOR – Before this season, Jennie Lucy hadn’t run the 1,600 meters since eighth grade, and had never raced it competitively.
The Bangor High School senior distance runner is two-for-two in the event this spring track season, not only winning it twice but lowering her time both times.
So far, so good.
“It was like maybe a second faster than it was last week,” Lucy said of her winning time of 5 minutes, 38.01 seconds.
Lucy and the Rams would go on to convincingly win the team competition with 2801/2 points to John Bapst’s 150.
Mount Desert Island took third with 85, Bucksport fourth with 421/2, Bangor Christian fifth with 13 and Stearns of Millinocket’s four rounded out the field.
The Bangor boys held off a game John Bapst team to earn the sweep with 205 points. Bapst scored 133, MDI 121, Bucksport 82, Stearns 22 and Bangor Christian 2.
In the girls meet, after coming off a 1,600 where she pulled away from Bapst’s Kim Spencer in the third 400 and cruising home from there, Lucy gave the Rams an encore performance, this time in the 4×400 relay.
Crusaders’ anchor Katherine Lammert made a hard move on the backstretch after Lucy took the baton roughly three strides ahead of her, but Lucy would have none of it, countering with a move of her own just past the 200 mark.
“I didn’t want to let my team down so I tried as hard as I could,” Lucy said.
Lucy, Jennifer Leach, Katie Porter and Brittney Chapman were timed in 4:19.41 to JB’s 4:19.85.
The Rams got solid performances all the way across the board, with key athletes such as Allie Clukey, Chelsea Pratt, Catherine LeClair, Dee Wilbur and Chapman all posting individual victories.
“We were trying to get some decent times out of the kids,” Bangor coach Joe Quinn said. “They’re doing well, all coming along.”
MDI was without speedy junior Danielle Hutchins, who was out with an undisclosed injury.
“She’s injured, but we don’t specifically know what it is,” coach Ian Braun said. “She’s going to be evaluated on Monday and we’ll take it from there.”
Bapst’s Spencer would capture the 3,200 in 12:29.49 while teammate Angel Nelligan cleared 8-6 to win the pole vault and was tops in the long jump with a leap of 14-83/4.
MDI’s Destiny Kanu had a solid day, outkicking Clukey to win the 200 in 27.94 after finishing second to her in the 100.
Kanu was also second in the 300 hurdles.
Bucksport got individual victories from Amanda Goode in the javelin (92-8) and Liz Beeson in the 300 hurdles (51.69)
In the boys meet, John Bapst showed it will be a force to reckon with in the Class C ranks this spring.
The Crusaders went toe-to-toe with the bigger Rams throughout the meet, and even held the lead after grabbing 28 points in the 300-meter hurdles.
Even though Bangor went on to win eventually, Bapst coach Bruce Pratt doesn’t even remember the last time his club challenged the Rams this well.
“Never. I’ve been [the head track coach] for eight years. I don’t think we’ve ever been this close,” he said. “I’m just tickled to death.”
John Bapst’s Chris Fogler was dominant in his events, winning the 110-meter hurdles in 15.28 seconds and coming back to win the 300 hurdles in 40.95 and clearing 5-10 to win the high jump.
His 300-meter race was the cleaner of the two, as he cleared all the hurdles with sound form with the exception of one.
“There was one hurdle down there that I messed up a little,” he said, pointing toward the backstretch.
“You’ve just got to dig it out and run all the way through.”
The defending Class A state champion Rams came into this meet having dropped their first two competitions of the spring, and getting their confidence up was a huge must with a meet against Brewer, Waterville and Belfast looming on Tuesday.
“We really didn’t know what it was like to lose the last couple of seasons, to lose was a little different feeling,” said senior thrower/sprinter Ryan Weston, who won the shot put with a toss of 41 feet, 2 inches and finished fourth in the 200.
“We’ve worked really hard in practice, to see it come together and get a win today was huge for our confidence,” Weston added.
After finding themselves behind after the 300 hurdles, the Rams responded and piled up 42 points to Bapst’s 1 in the 800 and 200 to pull away.
“I was really proud of our guys, they didn’t get discouraged, they didn’t hang their heads, they really kept the confidence,” Weston said.
Distance ace Riley Masters had a strong day, posting wins in the 3,200 and 1,600.
Masters kicked off his day winning the 3,200 in 9:45.21 and came back later in the meet to take the 1,600 in 4:45.08.
The 1,600 and 3,200 swapped places in the order of events in this weekend’s PVC meets.
Bucksport had a pair of individual champs in Dominic Kone, who won the 100-meter dash in 11.78 seconds while Vincent Tymoczko took the 400 in 53.82.
rmclaughlin@bangordailynews.net
990-8193
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