Josef Andrews entered the Mountain Valley Conference track and field championships uncertain how his balky knee would hold up to the stress of two long races.
Doctors, trainers and coaches will have the final word on that one. No need to ask the field that Andrews nearly lapped in the 3,200-meter final this past Thursday at Cony High School, however. You can be pretty sure how they’ll assess the Telstar senior.
“I was having some knee issues for most of the season, so I’m just kind of getting back into it,” Andrews said. “The mile we were just going to see where I was at, and the two-mile we were looking at as a hard tempo run instead of an actual race.”
Good idea, since it wasn’t much of a contest.
Andrews passed every runner except for runner-up Robert Campbell of Boothbay during the eight-lap event. He finished in 9 minutes, 30.73 seconds — 75 seconds faster than Campbell and just under a minute quicker than his own seed time.
He took such a leisurely pace during the season that Nick Harriman of Lisbon, not Andrews, was top seed in the endurance test.
“I took about a full two weeks of no running. A little bit of biking, a little bit of elliptical. Then probably another full week, week-and-a-half of just easy, two- and three-mile runs,” Andrews said. “It’s been the past week-and-a-half that I’ve been getting back into running. I’ve only done one workout, and that was Tuesday since the very beginning of the season.”
Andrews’ injury was an inflamed iliotibial band, a common symptom of overtraining.
“You can only rest it and ice it and hope it gets better fast,” he said.
Bound for Iowa State on scholarship in the fall along with Dan Curts of Ellsworth, Andrews also won the MVC 1,600 by 26 seconds over Harriman.
Andrews was a triple state champion at the 2013 Class C meet — 1,600, 3,200 and 4×800 relay. Conference domination aside, he would like to defend all three titles at Foxcroft Academy on Saturday. A lot depends, though, on how the knee responds Monday through Friday.
“I’ll probably just get in a good week of training,” Andrews said. “My coach (Dave Leclerc) and I actually haven’t discussed states yet.”
Mustangs’ Houston triples up
Marcques Houston of Monmouth also showed the MVC competition his clean bill of health at the conference championship meet. Only his days of fighting the injury bug are well in the past.
Houston won the 200 and 400 meters as well as contributing to a 4×800 relay victory.
The 400 title was a successful defense of the gold medal. It’s all still somewhat of a medical miracle after multiple surgeries to repair mystifying knee troubles.
“I was looking for a little bit better time, but also to defend from last year, and I knew Henry Adams from Lisbon wanted to beat me,” Houston said. “Last year was a good year just trying to get back from my injuries. This has been a real comeback year.”
Houston plans to continue his career at Colby.
Cougars out of hibernation
Mt. Blue was mildly disappointed with its third-place finish in the KVAC Class A boys’ track and field championship Saturday in Bath.
The Cougars felt that they left points on the table after J.T. Williams’ freak accident and resulting hamstring injury — one of his sneakers came apart, explosively, mid-run — cost likely points in the 4×100 relay, 200 and shot put.
It didn’t take long for coach Kelley Cullenberg to see the big picture and appreciate her team’s rapid ascent. The Cougars finished eighth each of the two previous years, and 10th in 2011. Mt. Blue’s most recent top-three finish in the team sweepstakes was third in 2005.
“We definitely met and went beyond my expectations,” Cullenberg said. “I mean, how do you know when a kid has never done track? You know they’re an athlete, but they don’t know how to do the form or whatever.”
In addition to newcomers Williams and Nate Backus, both football standouts, the Cougars also benefited greatly from Spruce Mountain transfer Nate Pratt-Holt.
Pratt-Holt won the triple jump and tied for third in long jump at KVACs. He’s only a sophomore.
“We’ve had distance and middle distance forever, but you can’t cover a track team with just distance and middle distance,” Cullenberg said. “It’s just been so nice.”
Mt. Blue’s new track facility has been a prolific recruiting tool. Cullenberg hopes the trend will continue.
“It makes it look like we actually have a team,” she said. “The past three years really has been twisting football players’ arms to realize that track is a sport. Hopefully they’re seeing what some of these kids have been able to do. Unfortunately some of these kids are seniors, so we had them for one year. They’re all kicking themselves, though, saying, ‘Why didn’t I do track before?'”
Potter taming Dragons
Luke Potter left high school baseball when he graduated from Lewiston High School in 2006. But even then he knew the parting was only temporary.
Potter, who played four years at Lewiston and served for three years as the Blue Devils’ captain, is in his first year as Brunswick’s baseball coach.
It’s not his first varsity job. He was Brunswick’s softball coach last year.
While he enjoyed the challenge of rebuilding that program, the opportunity to move to baseball was too good to pass up. It arose quickly and unexpectedly in March, when Bill Ridge stepped down to become Freeport’s baseball coach.
“In my professional life, I wanted to be a teacher and I wanted to be a varsity baseball coach,” said Potter, who teaches history at Brunswick. “I loved playing at Lewiston, loved high school baseball. I had the opportunity to play in college, in this town (at Bowdoin), so it’s nice to be in a place that’s home and that has given me so much. It’s time for me to give back.”
Potter has the Dragons back in contention. Saturday’s 1-0 win over Mt. Blue improved their record to 8-6 and solidified their playoff hopes with two games remaining in the regular season, against Bangor on Monday and at Oxford Hills on Tuesday.
He enjoyed his homecoming to Lewiston on May 14, although he would have liked a different result. The Blue Devils won, 4-2.
“It was exciting to be home. Lewiston is always going to be home,” Potter said. “It was nice to be home. I wish we’d played better.”
An outstanding pitcher at Lewiston for three seasons under Don King and one under Todd Cifelli, Potter just missed the Blue Devils becoming a consistent contender in the KVAC by a couple of years. His plan to build the Dragons into one of the strongest programs in Eastern Class A will need some tweaking, but he’s already put down a solid foundation in his first season.
“I’ve learned a lot,” he said. “There’s a lot of work. There’s a lot of things I want to do differently next year, but I’m really excited about it. It’s been a fun season.”
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