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The indoor track and field season provided the University of Maine with intense competition, school records, a crop of young talent to build for the future and even an All-American award. As the teams move forward into the outdoor season, they hope for more of the same.
The America East preseason polls for outdoor track have been released, and if they are any indication, the Black Bears will have to pull out all the stops to contend for a spot on the medal stand.
The men will need to blaze a trail past several formidable opponents, as they find themselves ranked sixth out of nine teams in the conference after a seventh-place finish at last year’s America East Championships. The University at Albany Great Danes are expected to replicate the dominant performance they put on last year, winning the conference title by more than 80 points. Albany received all eight first-place votes that were available — teams cannot vote for themselves.
Leading the way for UMaine will be sophomore All-American Riley Masters, who is the defending champion at 5,000 meters and a threat to score at several distances.
“I think eventually I’m going to move up to the 5K, maybe the 10K, but this outdoor season I’m going to try to focus on the 1,500 and see how far I can take that,” Masters said.
The Black Bears will also look for major performances from senior distance runner Miles Bartlett, who has been a consistent presence in the 3,000-meter steeplechase over the last two seasons.
Much of the scoring will have to come from the underclassmen, who make up a significant portion of the roster. Two freshmen who emerged as scoring threats during the indoor season, hurdler Jimmy Reed and sprinter/jumper Jamie Ruginski, will be invaluable to UMaine’s efforts.
“The switch from the 55 hurdles to the 110 hurdles is something I am really looking forward to,” said Reed, who set the 55-meter hurdles record during the indoor season. “The 55 hurdles are hard for me because I don’t have that raw speed and ability to get out of the blocks like a lot of people, but with the 110 hurdles I have a lot longer to build up my speed.”
The women’s team enters the season ranked fourth in the conference after finishing in the same position last year. The Great Dane women are also expected to take the title, though not in a runaway. After beating the University of New Hampshire by 23.5 points in last year’s conference meet, the Albany women earned seven out of nine first-place votes. UNH earned the remaining two votes.
“I still feel as though our team gets underestimated,” said senior Jordan Daniel. “We have a lot to show this season. I think we’ll be higher than fourth place, as long as we can [run multiple events].”
The lady Black Bears will look to a defending champion of their own to score often this season, as sophomore 1,500-meter champion Corey Conner is coming off impressive cross-country and indoor seasons. UMaine will have plenty more firepower, though, as sophomore hurdler/jumper Jesse Labreck is the top returning finisher in the 100-meter hurdles and a threat to score in any of the three jumping events.
“At America East for indoor, some girls were telling Corey during the 4×8 that their coaches doubled or tripled them because Maine was the team to look out for,” Daniel said. “Our team wasn’t doubling at all, so if we do that this outdoor season, we’ll gain a lot of points.”
Underclassmen sprinters Shaniqua Burgess, Danielle Hutchins, and Cearha Miller, all of whom had breakout indoor seasons, will also figure into the women’s team success.
Both teams will have a solid base of individual talents propelling them through the outdoor season. While neither team has managed to break through at the conference meet in several seasons, they never fail to put on a spectacular display of athleticism. The Black Bears will kick off the season with their only home meet of the year, a dual meet against UNH. The meet will begin at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Bangor Daily News