ORONO, Maine — As a freshman, Katie Deshane was talented, full of potential, and a New England championship qualifier in the high jump last spring.
The rest of the Eastern Maine Indoor Track League had better take notice after some of the solid times the Old Town sophomore put down at the University of Maine field house Saturday evening.
Deshane was one of two three-event girls winners in two multi-team EMITL meets, winning the 55 dash, 400 and 200 while Logan Clark swept the jumping events (high, long and triple) as Old Town captured the “B” meet with a resounding 165 points.
Bucksport finished second with 81, followed by Central of Corinth (33), Ellsworth and George Stevens of Blue Hill (22 apiece) and Skowhegan of the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference (16).
The defending conference champion Brewer girls, favorites to repeat this winter, piled up 146 points to win the “A” meet.
Orono was second with an impressive 95 points, with Cony of Augusta third with 63, John Bapst of Bangor fourth with 48, Mattanawcook of Lincoln fifth with 47 and Sumner of East Sullivan rounding out the field with four points.
The Witches and Coyotes won both boys meets as well.
Brewer outdistanced Cony 130-116 while Orono was third with 61, and Old Town held off Ellsworth 95-91.
The Witches, like some teams, didn’t open preseason practices until after Thanksgiving, thus having three weeks to train for the opening meets, while Mother Nature cost them a couple practices the last couple weeks.
“We lost some practices over the last couple weeks which has been frustrating,” Brewer coach Jamerson Crowley said. “I was very happy with our efforts today.”
In particular those of junior sprinter Ben Sinclair, who won two individual events and anchored a second-place relay team.
Sinclair outdistanced John Bapst sensation Chris Fogler to win the 55 in 6.81 seconds and blazed to a 51.46 in the 400.
“The most important thing for him to do is to come out and keep racing hard races and having great weeks of training,” Crowley said.
The Witches also got fine meets out of Steven Rice and Chase Daniels.
Daniels cleared 5 feet, 8 inches to win the high jump and 11-6 to capture the pole vault.
Rice cruised in the 55 hurdles, posting a solid 8.47 while finishing second to Sinclair in the 400 in 54.82.
Brewer’s other individual winner was Josh Stone’s 36-foot, 11.25-inch effort in the triple jump.
Fogler went on to take the 200 in 24.12 seconds and the long jump in 19-7.
Other standouts included Cony’s Luke Fontaine, who cruised to a 4-minute, 40.62-second victory in the mile and Orono’s Matt Claar’s 2:08.63 finish in the 800.
In the girls meet, Deshane, who suffered a right knee injury playing soccer for Old Town last fall, popped times of 7.85 seconds in the 55, 1:07.37 in the 400 and 28.41 in the 200.
“I think I can improve my 200 because it wasn’t my best,” said Deshane, who broke the 27-second barrier last spring.
Deshane added her knee injury will keep her from high jumping most of this season.
“I have a lot of inflammation in my knee and I’ve had it for like three months so I got an MRI [Saturday] morning, and the results come back Wednesday,” she explained.
Clark cleared 5 feet to win the high jump while posting marks of 14-0-.25 in the long jump and 32-4.75 in the triple jump.
Kate Goodness went on to win the 2 mile in 12:45.05, outkicking Brewer sophomore Michelle Haluska, the defending league champion in the event.
The two-mile races in the “A” and “B” meets were run together.
In the “A” meet, the defending league champion Witches certainly put down some decent times, but with this being the first meet, Crowley decided to mix things up a bit.
For example, Mackenzie DeGraff was entered in both the 55 dash and 55 hurdles, winning both with respective efforts of 9.67 and 7.93.
“We’re going to try to move some people in some areas and see what we can do,” said Crowley.
Kira Giroux, who has aspirations of breaking the 1-minute barrier in the 400, something that hasn’t been done in the EMITL since Jen Puiia in the 1998-99 season, got her season off to a solid start with a 1:02.89 clocking in the 400 to go with a 28.33 effort in the 200, both wins.
“I’m definitely happy with my 400 time, I cant wait until I get more competition so I can push myself even further,” said Giroux, who ran a 27-second split in the 4×220 relay.
Brewer’s talented distance crew enjoyed a fine day, with freshman Sara Chavarie picking up a win in the mile (5:51.17) and a second in the 800 (2:36.93).
Orono junior Holli Kenison had herself a great first meet, teaming up with Ariel Meaker, Chloe Paul and Alex Crocker on the Riots’ winning 4×220 team while winning the triple jump in 33-6, reaching that plateau for the first time since her freshman season.
Jumping against Brewer’s DeGraff, who was second, gave Kenison extra incentive.
“Mackenzie is just an amazing jumper and I definitely had to perform at my peak if I want to compete at her level,” Kenison said.
She added that Orono’s intense workouts are starting to pay dividends.
“As a whole our workouts and practices have been more intense this year and of course coach [Chris] Libby is a great coach and really knows what he’s doing,” said Kenison.
The Riots’ other individual winner was Shelby Wheeler, who cleared 8-6 in the pole vault.
