BRUNSWICK — Some of the state’s best indoor track athletes are on area high school teams and as the season is about to begin, they and their teammates are ready to compete this winter.
Mt. Ararat’s Lisandro Berry-Gaviria returns as Class A’s top runner in both the one- and two-mile events. Brunswick’s Sam Cenescar will look to best his second-place finish in the Class A high jump and Freeport’s Tara Migliaccio hopes to improve her second-place showing in the Class B 400-meter dash.
Lisbon and St. Dominic’s Academy are combining athletes to form one team after practicing together last year, but scored separately. As is the case with the athletes from Morse, who practice with Brunswick and score separately.
With much of the schedule remaining in December and January providing the athletes to improve in their events, it’s also a time to explore and try new ones.
“One of our goals is to help them find an event or events they can excel at and have fun at the same time,” longtime Mt. Ararat coach Diane Fournier said.
The season opens this weekend for Mt. Ararat, Brunswick and Morse with a meet at Colby College on Saturday. Freeport will continue to practice in December, not competing officially until Jan. 4, a Western Maine Conference meet at the University of Southern Maine, along with Lisbon/St. Dom’s.
Mt. Ararat
Fournier and her staff knows they have some talented athletes once again on their team despite some key losses. Both the boys and girls teams will again compete for a KVAC title as well as make some noise in the State Class A Championships.
The girls team, which won the KVAC title while finishing 13th at the state meet, will look to recoup the losses of Katherine Leckbee, Hope Langworthy, Rebecca French and Abby Kons to name a few. The second-place finishers in the Class A 4 x 800 relay of French, Leckbee, Josie Miller and Sara York graduated all but York.
Wyley Fitzpatrick returns as the conference’s top long and triple jumper and will run relay events, while Katie Lynch will be back competing in the hurdles, 200, and will also run relays. Senior Emily Smith returns in the pole vault.
The boys head into the season as the conference runners-up, losing by a half-point in the championship to Brunswick. The squad had a solid showing at the state meet, placing fourth overall. The Eagles will look to replace Caden Pond, Dalton Streeter, Jason Halliday and Gideon Wheeler.
Behind Berry-Gaviria, the Eagles return Maximo Varela and Ethan Rac in the jumping events. The mixture of upper and underclassmen will provide depth for the Eagles as they’ll be looked upon to lift their skills to the next level.
After Saturday’s meet, the Eagles will compete in a nine-team meet on Dec. 14, a four-teamer on Dec. 22, and another nine-team event on Dec. 28, all at Bowdoin College.
The new year features a meet Jan. 17 in Gorham at USM before the conference championships at Farley Field House at Bowdoin on Feb. 9. The State Class A Championships will be held on Feb. 18 at USM.
Brunswick
The Dragons also enjoyed success at the KVAC’s last year, with the girls placing fifth and the boys edging out Mt. Ararat (114.50-114) for the title.
The girls team has had several additions to the team which will work with the veterans to improve on their KVAC finish from a year ago.
Returning to the squad are Maddie Wayne and Desiree Tanner in the 800 and sprints, Micaela Ashby is back in the distance events, while Tea Kepler returns for another year in the pole vault. Kaeden Green, Aela Hemberger, Ophelia Ladner and Micaela Turgeon are four freshmen expected to contribute to the team.
The boys return the majority of its championship team and picked up several athletes who will be competing in track and field for the first time.
“We will be working with all of the athletes to find the events where they will excel and help the team,” coach Dan Dearing said.
Cenescar returns as tops in the KVAC in both the high- and long-jump events. The junior is also coming off an outdoor state championship in the high jump last spring.
Mitchell Lienart is back as the conference 200 champion, while Hunter Parker returns as the KVAC 400 winner. Will Shaughnessy, Andrew Chingos, Aiden Simmons and Tyler Patterson will look to score well in the distance events. Michael McCrum, Owen Richardson, Kian Murray and Jack Harvey will be among those looking to make an impact at every meet.
Following Saturday’s meet, the Dragons will compete the next three Saturdays with meets at Bowdoin College on Dec. 15 and 29, with a Dec. 22 meet sandwiched in the middle at Colby College. They will host a meet at Bowdoin on Jan. 4 and compete in a conference meet at USM (Jan. 17) before the KVAC’s (Feb. 9).
“The main goals for both teams will be to steadily improve throughout the season and compete well at the KVAC’s and states while avoiding the injuries and illness all teams face during the winter months,” Dearing adds.
Morse
With over a dozen athletes competing in various events, interest in the Shipbuilders’ track team continues to grow.
Senior Mae Winglass (long jump) and junior Samantha Ramsey (55 dash) return on the girls team and will look to improve their performances from the Class B KVAC’s. Shot-putter William Carrolton returns for his junior year for the boys.
Other members on the squad are seniors Haleigh Willis, Thomas Trundy and Tyler Scorfina. Also on the team are juniors Lorelei Pryoer and Savannah McKenney, along with sophomores Aidan Pryor, Liam Scanlon, Connor Freeman and Jacob Mowry. Freshman Lily Clifford rounds out the squad.
Morse follows the same schedule as the Dragons, while the State Class B Championships will be held at Bates College in Lewiston on Feb. 16.
Freeport
Although numbers are just under 40 participants compared to 50-plus in recent years, coach Brian Berkemeyer says the smaller team has a lot of athletes that are just discovering their potential.
Losing 22 seniors, including Jacob Tomm, Joe Ashby and Maya Bradbury, Berkemeyer believes his athletes will push themselves for a successful season.
“It is a rebuilding year,” Berkemeyer said. “We could have a few surprises from the underclassmen. It will be interesting to see who sets their expectations high and achieves them. As always, we will be working towards qualifying for states.”
Migliaccio will again be competitive in the 400 on the girls squad. The junior won the conference title and placed second in the State Class B Championships. She came in seventh in the 55 at states. Berkemeyer also feels the girls team will have a “decent” 4 x 200 relay team.
The boys, which finished third in the WMC’s, lost eight of the Falcons’ nine points posted at the state meet with Ashby and Tomm’s graduation. Senior Nick Mitch returns in the 400 and the coach adds they will be “able to put together a pretty good boys 4 x 800 relay.”
The Falcons begin competition in January, with five WMC meets starting on Jan. 4. The meets are held Fridays at USM leading up to the conference meet on Feb. 8.
Lisbon/St. Dom’s
Lisbon’s Dean Hall and Dan Sylvester will co-coach the newly formed co-op team between the two schools. Both bring years of coaching outdoor track to the program.
The teams practice at each of their schools while also practicing at Bates College on the indoor track twice a week.
Returning are shot putters Isaiah Thompson and Alan Lavoie. Both were strong competitors in the outdoor season for Lisbon this past spring. After a successful cross country season for the Greyhounds, David Schlotterbeck is also competing in his second indoor season.
The excitement and talent level is high for the team.
“We want to go into meets being competitive,” Sylvester said. “The boys, with the numbers we have, we have some depth that should be a little easier to achieve. The girls’ numbers are lower, but they’ll still be competitive.”
The co-op team will run a WMC schedule for meets, competing on the same dates as Freeport.
Adam Robinson from the Sun Journal contributed to this story.
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