ORONO – A deep team is a must to be successful in relay meets.
Just ask the Bangor girls and Brewer boys, and they’ll give the proper instructions.
Coach Maynard Walton’s Bangor girls dominated Saturday’s Black Bear Relay meet held at the University of Maine field house, knocking off runner-up Old Town 144-87. John Bapst of Bangor was third in the 12-team field with 40, Hermon and Hampden tied for fourth with 35, and Brewer was sixth with 26.
The Witches won for the third time in as many meets, also beating the Indians, 139-77 on the boys side. Hampden finished third out of 11 teams with 65, Bangor was fourth with 52, and Mount Desert Island’s 41 rounded out the top five.
In the girls meet, Bangor’s deep squad captured almost every event, losing only four of the 12 relay events that were contested. There were three open events: the 60 dash, 60 hurdles, and mile.
The Rams dominated not only on the track, but in the field events. Their high jump team of Amanda Mooers, Jesse Dunham, and Gillian Lambert set a meet record with a combined height of 14 feet, 2 inches.
Walton was pleased with his girls’ efforts.
“We knew we had to make an effort to see where we were,” he said. “Old Town is really strong in the sprints.”
Senior Danielle Lainez was on four different relay teams (4×440, shuttle hurdles, pole vault, triple jump). The only one Bangor didn’t win was pole vault, which Hermon captured.
“We have a better well-rounded team,” Lainez said of Bangor’s depth. “We did a lot better in the jumping events.”
All of the jumping events were won by Bangor.
John Bapst’s Elaine Colwell was victorious in the hurdles (10.02), Hermon’s Francesca White took the mile (6:04.79), and Erin Beasley from Penquis in Milo won the 60 in 7.93.
Another record that was set was in the girls shot put, where the Brewer High team of Sarah Hodgins, Kelley Clark, and Candice Wilcox combined for a distance of 86 feet, 9.25 inches.
“It was impressive,” said Brewer coach Matt Collins. “They’ll break it next year.”
In the boys meet, Collins’ Witches dominated the field events, capturing every event that wasn’t held on the track. The one that stood out most was in the pole vault, where Mike Parker, Chip Haskell, and Matt Quimby combined for a height of 33-6, a meet record.
“That record will hold for a long time,” Collins said.
Parker agreed.
“We’ve all come a long way,” he said of Brewer’s pole vault trio. “Our team is really strong.”
The Witches’ distance crew got a big boost with the return of sophomore Brendan Carr, who was third in the mile (4:51).
“The return [of Brendan] is big,” said Collins. “We’ll work him into some 800s.”
Carr missed the first two meets with stress fracture problems, according to Collins.
The Witches were strong on the track despite coming off a tough work week.
“Ninety percent [of the boys] did a real fine job,” he said. “There were a couple of mistakes, but that’s no big deal.”
Brewer’s Chris Fox, Jeremy McAdam, and Dan Fox went 1-2-4 in the 60 while the shuttle hurdle team of Josh Hawkes, Tyler Stewart, Tony Schwarze, and Dan Peterson blazed to a 33.20.
The Witches also won the 4-by-440, distance medley, and 4-by-880.
Sumner of East Sullivan senior Ryan O’Keefe was first in the mile, clocking a 4:47 while Hampden’s Brad Simms took the 60 hurdles in 8.37.
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