Led by senior captains Hattie Landry (Wells), Christa Hutchinson (Gorham) and Emily Poliquin (Lisbon Falls), the women’s indoor track team put a big win under their shoes and grasped the program’s third state championship.
Other standouts included sophomores Sarah Hale (Naples) and Emily Artesani (Orono).
After a somewhat slow start to their season, the women’s team is working hard to stay strong off the starting blocks.
“We’re picking up some good steam now,” said head coach George Towle. “We had a really good meet last week, and I think we’re turning things around. This was one of the first meets that we started to show some of our quality potential.”
The meet to which Coach Towle is referring is last weekend’s USM Coed Invitational in which USM won in a squeaker, edging out state rival Bates by four points.
It had been a tough stretch for the Huskies until them, who finished a surprising fourth in the M.I.T. invitational in January.
Hutchinson, who leads the Huskies in multiple events said, “we are a young team this year so we started off a little slow, but the last meet we really picked it up.”
After the M.I.T. invitational, USM traveled to the Boston University Terrier Classic to try their skills with some of the top teams in the country, including some Division I squads.
There, they made an impression in the 200 meters with Landry, Hale, and Hutchinson all winning their respective heats.
“The 200 has been a surprise for us this year,” said Hutchinson, who has a slew of USM record times in the 400, 500, 600, and 800 meter races.
Landry, a sprinter, hurdler and jumper, took home first place in three events in the State Championship, in which she and her team faced the three other track programs in the state: Bowdoin, Colby and Bates.
“We are getting into higher competition, so it’s going to be tougher and tougher to win races down the stretch,” says Landry.
“We have some really talented kids and a top program, we’ve won the last eight conference titles in a row,” says Towle, who was a part-time volunteer until USM track was made a full time program in 1998. In reference to the decade-old program, he says, “we started winning championships right out of the gate.”
Bowdoin coach Peter Slovenski offered some praise of his own. “USM has the most impressive line-up of sprinters and jumpers in the state, period. We always try to get our points in other events because we know USM is going to get all of those.”
Landry contritubutes most of the success toward her team’s work ethic. “We are definitely some of the hardest-working athletes in this school; USM has always been a great sprinting and jumping program.”
“For some reason, the sprinters flock here,” says Landry. “In my four years, they have been the events in which we’ve had the most depth.”
Track, be it sprinting, jumping or any other event, takes a tremendous toll on the body.
To stay fit these athletes rely on proper stretching techniques, hours of practice on running form and technique as well as determination and focus to get the job done and win the races that matter most.
Hale, one of the best sprinters in New England, has been battling a number of injuries throughout the season, including shin splints and a sprained hamstring.
“For me it’s been tough, but our team is doing great right now,” says Hale, who is second on the USM all-time list for the 55-meter dash.
The Huskies compete next on Feb. 16 in their third home meet in a row. They will face the top teams in the Little East and Alliance conferences in the conference championship, which begins at noon in the Gorham field house.