The USM Women’s Track and Field team capped off a monumental season with a fifth place finish at the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship last Saturday at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y. The Huskies’ fifth place finish was the best in school’s history. The team was led by junior Sara Marzouk (Wilder, VT), who set a school record (4:47.97) in the 1500-meter race and placed fourth overall. Marzouk also placed eighth later in the day in the 800-meter race.
Senior Kim Brewer (Bristol, VT), won the pentathlon with a school record-setting time on Friday, and returned Saturday to take fifth place in the triple jump.
Sophomore Melissa Bellemore (Manchester, NH) finished second in the pole vault clearing 3.05 meters. Senior Lindsay Davis (North Berwick, Maine) took sixth place in the 1,000-meter.
The Huskies phenomenal finish at the ECAC championship was the icing on the cake for the Huskies’ already legendary postseason. USM finished first at the Little East Conference (LEC) championship, first at the Alliance Conference championship, fourth at the New England Division III championship, and for the first time in school history placed first in the State of Maine championship.
“I didn’t realize how important it was to our athletes to win the states,” head coach George Towle said. “We always used it as a stepping stone to the conference meet, which I felt was more important. When they announced we won, I had never seen my athletes quite so happy in my seven years here.”
Towle led the Lady Huskies to a 14-1 regular season record, with its only loss coming to Springfield College back in January at the Coast Guard Invitational. Towle recognized a lot of people for the Huskies success.
“I credit the athletes themselves and their willingness to put the time in. Also, we have great assistant coaches with John Berube, Mike Drummey, and Gary Grady who are all really helpful,” Towle said.
One of the Huskies’ five captains, senior Kristen Sinclair (Manchester, ME), felt the team’s cohesiveness also had a lot to do with USM’s success this season.
“We have a great team atmosphere, the coaches are positive, and we all connect really well,” Sinclair said.
The Huskies began their season at the URI New Year’s Classic where they hit their lowest point of the season.
“We were facing URI, U-Conn, and UNH, and we placed last by a long shot. But we learned a lot from this meet. We realized that wasn’t the team that we are,”
Marzouk said.
The Huskies pledged to work together as a team and build from the URI meet. They practiced hard and began gelling into a strong cohesive group, their confidence was rebuilt, and they approached the postseason with a lot of momentum.
“This is the kind of season that coaches live for, not to mention an amazing postseason,” Towle said. We had individuals breaking school records, we won team championships, and the team chemistry was great.”
The Huskies didn’t always want to wake up to head to the gym and needed a little extra motivation to get into the track spirit.
“I have to try to motivate myself, but my teammates help a lot,” said Brewer. You can come to practice and see Kristen Ingalls (Raymond, ME) smiling and skipping, and that makes me smile. We all feed off each other,” she said.
The Huskies have five seniors graduating this year, a rarity in Division III athletics. Many D-III athletes get burnt out trying to balance college athletes as well as academics. But the members of USM’s women’s track team say flexible coaches and a great team atmosphere is to thank for bringing them back year-to-year.
“The coaches are always here and they offer us varying times to practice to fit our schedules,” Sinclair said. “The girls are all really supportive, and it’s amazing to be part of a team like this. Doing a sport in college is very beneficial, it has made me a more well-rounded person,” she said.
Although USM is losing five seniors, Coach Towle doesn’t see the team struggling next year.
“We have a lot of talented underclassmen, and juniors that will step in as quality leaders. I hope to keep things going forward,” Towle said.
“We are losing five wonderful seniors, but our underclassmen are only going to get better. We hope for another great season next year,” Marzouk said.