The first indoor track and field meets of the season are still a few weeks away, but there are already a great deal of subplots in the winter-long drama also known as the Eastern Maine Indoor Track League.

For one, Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference teams will join EMITL teams in a few meets this season, which provides a great chance for athletes from both conferences to experience some new competition.

Also, when looking at the girls’ side of the spectrum in the East this season, there are a number of noteworthy story lines.

Can the legendary Maynard Walton lead his Bangor Rams back to the top in his final season at the helm? Does Brewer have enough power to make another run to the top of the league? Will Mount Desert Island’s indoor newcomers give them a shot at these two heavyweights, who have combined to win seven of the eight league championships this decade?

The answers: Yes, yes and yes.

Walton’s Rams had won the last four EMITL championships before Brewer broke that string last winter.

The bad news is Bangor lost a few key scorers from that team, but the good news is that the Rams have a lot of firepower coming back.

Walton has top performers Dee Wilbur (hurdles, sprints), Brittney Chapman (sprints) and Kendra Lenz (sprints, jumps) in his arsenal, along with distance runners Katie Porter, Chelsea Pratt, Rachel Huber and Mariah Reading.

Porter, who specializes in the middle distances such as the 400- and 800-meter runs, should improve vastly in those events after a strong cross country season.

Other key performers will be Jen Tsang in the pole vault and Cote Theriault in the shot put.

The reigning champs from Brewer didn’t lose too much scoring from a team that piled up 137 points in last year’s championship meet.

Coach Jamerson Crowley welcomes back Mackenzie DeGraff, the co-top performer (with Hilary Maxim of Old Town) in 2008, along with Kira Giroux, Erika Cote and a dynamite distance team.

That bunch boasts many of the runners who led the Witches’ cross country team to an Eastern Maine Class A championship and state runner-up accolades this fall.

Michelle Haluska, Sara Chavarie, Katie Snow, Bekah Clark, Brooke Madden, Caitlyn Wilson, Kaitlin Noyes and Ashley Geiser comprise that crew, which has solid depth.

Noyes is also very versatile and should be one of the conference’s top pole vaulters, along with Alison Keane, who had a solid outdoor track campaign, qualifying for the New England championships.

Noyes, Madden, Clark and Snow hold the league’s 4-by-880 relay record of 10 minutes, 3.62 seconds, and they appear poised to break that once again this season.

MDI gets a boost from talented athletes Danielle Hutchins (sprints) and Heather Spurling (distance).

Hutchins, who owns PVC outdoor track records in the 100 and 200, gives coach Ian Braun a potential 30-point threat, which makes the Trojans a tough team in a championship meet.

Spurling should be one of the conference’s top distance runners, along with John Bapst of Bangor’s Kim Spencer, Brianne Dunn of Ellsworth and Haluska of Brewer.

Other athletes to watch include Holli Kenison of Orono in the hurdles and Maggie Bryan of John Bapst in the distance events.

EMITL schedule swap

There has been a slight change in the EMITL’s regular-season schedule.

The third regular-season affair, which traditionally features the top five teams from the previous year’s league championships – Brewer, Bangor, Hampden Academy, Orono and Old Town, along with KVAC entry Waterville, has added a new team.

The Jan. 9 meet was originally supposed to feature Winslow along with the aforementioned schools, but the Black Raiders will instead compete on Jan. 10 at UMaine, while Brunswick switches from the Saturday meet to the Friday meet.

Now, it will be a midseason showdown between the last two Class A state boys champions (Brunswick and Bangor), the respective EMITL and KVAC champs from 2007-08 (Brewer girls, Bangor boys, Waterville and Brunswick boys and girls) and some of the state’s top performers.

Those performers include Shelby Tuttle of Waterville, Kristin Slotnick of Brunswick, Will Geoghegan of Brunswick, Ben Sinclair of Brewer, Giroux of Brewer and Lenz and Chapman of Bangor.

rmclaughlin@bangordailynews.net

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