LEWISTON — The Waterville girls indoor track and field team went into the Class B state championship meet with a number in mind: 132. That’s the team record for points in the meet, and that’s what the Purple Panthers hoped to score.

Waterville didn’t quite reach that mark, the Panthers finished the day at Bates College with 118 points. That was plenty, however, and Waterville won its second consecutive state title and fourth in six years.

“Every year on the first day, we set the goal to come in here and win a state title. I don’t believe in talking to these kids about trying to be runner up, or being a top five, or anything like that. These girls really buy into that,” Waterville coach Ian Wilson said. “You know, I could sit here and talk until I’m blue in the face and that would do no good if I didn’t have a group of really competitive, hard working athletic kids who buy into that.”

The Greely girls finished second with 73.4 points, while Fryeburg Academy was third with 44. Winslow placed fifth with 32 points.

York won its first boys team title with 67.5 points, holding off second-place Waterville (56.5) and third place Falmouth (52).

The Panthers’ depth was the difference. The Waterville girls picked up points in 12 of 14 events, but the day belonged to junior Bethanie Brown, who won the mile, the 2-mile and the 800-meter run. Brown set the state record in the mile with a time of 5 minutes, 2.15 seconds.

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Brown knew the state record in the mile was within reach, but wasn’t sure she would be able to do it and still compete hard in her other two races. During the final lap, Brown pulled away from Greely’s Kirstin Sandreuter, winning the race by eight seconds.

“I knew I had to go out at kind of a good pace to do that, but I also wanted to save myself a little bit for my next events. I knew I had a big challenge ahead of me trying to get the win in three events,” Brown said.

Brown’s winning time in the 800 was 2 minutes, 19.09 seconds, while she took the 2-mile in 10:59.68.

“I think what Bethanie Brown did in winning three distance events is just off the charts great. Girls distance running is very good right now, and she was the best of some very good runners today,” Wilson said. “A lot of kids were close to her. It wasn’t like she ran alone the whole day.”

The Waterville girls other individual winner was Olivia Thurston in the 55 hurdles, with a time of 8.68 seconds. Thurston came close to repeating as winner of the 400, where she set the state record last season, but was overtaken by Fryeburg’s Corinn Bedell just before the finish. Thurston finished at 59.97 seconds, to Bedell’s 59.95, in the closest race of the day.

“A really great race on her part. I might’ve wasted some energy early in the race,” Thurston said.

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Competing in indoor track for the first time this winter, Madison’s Matt McClintock went into the day the favorite in the boys mile and 2-mile, and hoped to break the state record, 9:15.5, in the 2-mile. While he shaved six seconds off his seed time and won in 9:31.63, McClintock, also the Class C cross country champion, was a little disappointed.

“A win’s a win, but I’m looking for a little more. I’ll keep pushing myself mentally to get a little better,” McClintock, who won the mile with a time of 4:29.86, said. “I felt pretty good for probably the first mile and a quarter. Then my legs started tightening up a little bit. Really, it wasn’t that bad.”

Nick Margitza won the boys shot put title for Waterville, rallying after fouling on his first two throws to toss a personal-best 53 feet, 1 inch.

“I started off with some poor throws, but I really turned it around,” Margitza said. “After I fouled the first two. I got a power throw in, and that got me into finals, and I really opened up in finals.”

Devin Burgess repeated as state champ in the pole vault for Waterville, going a personal-best 13-0. After his first attempt at 11 feet, Wilson told Burgess to stop looking at the bar when he vaulted.

“I said to myself, ‘If I start looking at the bar, I’m going to close my eyes’, and it started clicking from there, and I started having fun,” Burgess said.

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In his state meet debut, Waterville’s Jordhan Levine won the boys triple jump title with a leap of 41-5, just beating his teammate, Anthony Bellavia. Levine reached his winning jump on his final attempt.

“My first two were awful. I was jumping off the wrong foot,” Levine said. “I retook my steps, got them going again, and my last one I was just like, go for it. You’ve got nothing to lose.”

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com


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