A pair of familiar coaching faces will be guiding John Bapst’s outdoor track and field team this spring.
Joe Capehart, who coaches the Bangor school’s cross country and indoor track squads, and Jeff Libby, who skippers the Nordic ski team, will collaborate to coach the Crusaders on the track this spring, according to athletic administrator Rick Sinclair.
They replace Bruce Pratt, who retired after a successful 10-year coaching tenure in which the John Bapst girls won eight Class C state championships. The Crusaders have also won the last nine Penobscot Valley Conference small school championships.
Both coaches were assistants under Pratt last season.
Capehart, one of the area’s top local road racers, took over the John Bapst cross country program in 2006, and the Crusaders enjoyed their best season under his watch last fall, with the girls claiming regional and state championship honors in Class B.
The Crusaders are expected to be one of the favorites in Class C track again this spring, as they graduated only three individual scorers from last year’s state championship meet.
The returning nucleus includes a talented blend of distance runners who powered Bapst’s cross country team to the state title in the fall, including Maggie Bryan, a state runner-up in the 800 meters last spring, and sisters Adrienne and Mary Carmack.
Preseason practices for all outdoor track and field teams get under way on March 28.
Beach to Beacon filling fast
It comes as almost no surprise every spring that the TD Bank Beach to Beacon road race fills up quickly, and this year was no exception.
The 4,000 bib numbers offered via online registration were gone in a whopping eight minutes on Tuesday. Race president Dave Weatherbie said 3,000 people had signed up in the first four minutes of the process, which began at 7 a.m.
“Overall, we’re quite pleased with how the registration process worked,” he said in a press release. “Several runners told us it was smooth sailing, so that was good to hear.”
The eight-minute time frame annihilated the record of 32 minutes set last year, while Cape Elizabeth residents reached their 600-runner limit in just 51 minutes on Monday.
The 1,750 remaining bib numbers for the Aug. 6 race will be distributed via lottery. Prospective participants have until March 22 to do so, with the fee being $5 to sign up.
The drawing for the lottery will be held March 23, and as of Tuesday afternoon, more than 1,300 runners had registered for the lottery.
Race organizers will accept 7,200 registrations, with a target field of around 6,000. A record 5,672 runners completed the race last summer.
Gary excels in nationals
Mount Ararat High senior MacKenzie Gary represented Maine at the New Balance Indoor National championships in New York City over the weekend, and he didn’t disappoint.
Gary competed in three events at New York’s Armory and made the finals in the 200-meter dash.
He posted the seventh-best time in the trials at 22.67 seconds to eke out a spot in the final, where Gary finished fourth in 22.35, the fastest time ever run by a Maine schoolboy runner in the 200.
Gary was also 10th in the 60-meter dash in 7.17 seconds and 14th in the long jump with a mark of 20 feet, 5.75 inches.
Elsewhere, Abigail Huntress of Thornton Academy of Saco uncorked a throw of 38-1.25 in the shot put to finish seventh.
True bound for XC worlds
Ben True, a native of North Yarmouth who has won the Maine men’s division of the Beach to Beacon 10K race the last two summers, will compete for the United States at the World Cross Country championships in Spain on Sunday.
True went on to enjoy a stellar college career at Dartmouth College after having similar success at Greely High of Cumberland Center. He was an All-American in cross country at Dartmouth.
Team USA will be led by Brett Vaughn, who won the individual title at the national championships in San Diego earlier this winter.
Rounding out True’s teammates are Andrew Bumbalough of Portland, Ore., Andrew Carlson of Minneapolis, Brian Olinger of Westerville, Ohio, and Max King of Bend, Ore.
