TOPSHAM

The 2016 fall sports season came and went quickly. Just a few weeks ago, the Brunswick High School and Lisbon High School football teams were playing for the golden ball.

Now, after tryouts, practices and preseason games, the winter season is here.

Here’s a look at local girls basketball, swimming and indoor track squads, many of which begin their season tonight.

Girls basketball

Last season started roughly for Sam Farrell and Brunswick. The Dragons started 0-4 and didn’t score more than 30 points in their first two games. An eight-game winning streak followed the slow start, but to get things going right out of the gate this time around, Farrell and company played “the toughest preseason I’ve ever scheduled as a coach.”

Senior Madeline Suhr will be leading the way in what will be a more aggressive approach this season. Farrell said the team will follow Suhr’s example on the floor and that she’s the leader and backbone of the defense.

Brooke Barter, Aidan Sachs and Heather Kinee are also returning seniors, while Sabrina Armstrong (junior) and Charlotte MacMillan (sophomore) are returning starters that will see significant time.

Brunswick will look to get into the win column early against Morse tonight at home (5 p.m.) before visiting rival Mt. Ararat next Tuesday (5 p.m.) and Greely next Thursday (6:30 p.m.).

“We were the four seed last year and our goal is to improve on that,” Farrell said. “From there we need to improve as a team as the season progresses. We believe we can compete with anybody, but we just need players to step up in games and in practices and make plays. If we make enough plays, we should have success.”

A quick start will also be important for Andy Morris and the Eagles, whose lone win (31-28 on a buzzer-beater) came against the Dragons in the second game of last year’s season.

Morris loses team-leader Sara Lamb, who hit the game-winning shot, and already has a pair of starters out injured. The good news is the rest of the team is back.

“I’ve got other kids that are just sort of waiting for their turn,” Morris said. “Kate Guerin, Lauren Labbay, Taylor Wienckowski. Kate was a starter, Taylor Wienckowski was a starter. Sabrina Paetow over here, going to rebound now, she’s a senior. I’m pretty much a senior-laden group this year.”

Morris also pointed to freshman Kyla Greenleaf, who will see lots of minutes at point guard, as an impactful player.

As for last year’s 1-17 campaign? There hasn’t been much talk of that.

“We have a goal. We need to get to the Expo (Portland),” Morris said. “Right from day one, we want to find the players that are willing to do what is necessary to get there. That’s the message.”

With a closer look at the numbers, you find that nine of those 17 losses came by six points or less. Two games went to overtime and two were one-point losses.

With a strong core of players back, Mt. Ararat is poised for an improvement this season. It starts tonight on the road at Leavitt, 6:30 p.m.

It’s a much different story for Becky Roak’s Morse team in Bath, which finished 10-8 and earned the No. 5 seed in Class A South last season. The Shipbuilders knocked off Brunswick (42-37) in the quarterfinals before falling to York (52-33) in the semis.

Roak brings back a number of starters and will be eyeing the postseason again in a competitive league. Morse will host Leavitt next Tuesday (6:30 p.m.) following the rematch with Brunswick tonight before traveling down to Cape Elizabeth next Thursday at 7 p.m.

A key stretch in the Shipbuilders’ schedule will come Dec. 30 through January 9, where they’ll play four consecutive road games against Leavitt, Edward Little, Westbrook and Mt. Ararat.

Down in Freeport, Mike Hart is beginning his third season on the bench with some familiar faces. The Falcons return two seniors and five juniors after finishing as a 9-9 No. 7 seed in Class B South. Seniors Regan Lynch and Ireland Hall will lead the way on a team that lost to Gray-New Gloucester (56- 30) in the quarterfinals.

Juniors Jessie Driscoll, Taylor Dostie, Megan Cormier, Taylor Rinaldi and Johanna Bogue Marlow all spent plenty of time on the floor last season and will do the same in 2016-17.

”Our strength is in our ability to share the basketball and put the team before ourselves,” Hart said. ”If you look at our roster you would think with seven freshman we are young, but there is a lot of varsity experience on this team. An ongoing focus for us is securing rebounds to finish our defensive sequence. I expect the newcomers to keep learning every day and contribute as the season progresses.”

The Falcons begin the campaign tonight at home against Poland, 7 p.m.

At Lisbon, the goal is simple for Julie Petrie and her squad — make the postseason.

“We want to get to playoffs, that’s our goal,” Petrie said. “Honestly, I think we have the potential to make the playoffs. It’s hard in Class B, but that’s our ultimate goal. Last year, we were so close, just on the outside looking in. So, that’s this year’s focus.”

Petrie will be leaning on returning seniors Jasmin Le, Kaylin Le and Kipri Steele to lead the squad through an always-tough Mountain Valley Conference schedule and improve on a 7-11 record.

As usual, she expects the defense to be strong for the Greyhounds and said the key will be scoring points.

Lisbon will visit Hall-Dale at 6:30 p.m. tonight to kick things off before hosting Carrabec (7 p.m.) next Tuesday and rival Oak Hill (7 p.m.) next Thursday.

Ben Clark learned a lot during his first season as Wiscasset head coach. After a 3-15 record, a lot of it came off the court.

“I learned something new every day last year and expect to again this year,” Clark said. “Ultimately we learned how hard we need to practice. For us, we’re still working on developing a culture that values work ethic and positive attitude. We approach every practice as a chance to learn and grow and we see practice as an opportunity to improve.”

Clark is particularly excited about his returning players, four of which are starters. Senior Gabby Chapman will lead the back court, Grace Webber and Maeve Blodgett will be on the wings, and Hayhlee Craig and Lindsey Gordon “seem ready for breakout years” in the front court.

The Wolverines, who host Mt. Abram tonight at 7 p.m., will be focused on cutting down on turnovers and working harder in practice.

“We’re striving to be better with every day,” Clark said. “For us it’s all about constant improvement. We say daily ‘let’s be better today than we were yesterday.’ If we do this than we have the potential to be pretty good.”

For Mike Ladner at Richmond, this season will be more about a rebound. The Bobcats put together a typically successful regular season last year (13-2) before being upset by Searsport in the quarterfinals. Kelsea Anair tops the list of seniors that have moved on, but returning starters like Sydney Tilton point to another winning year.

The Bobcats open with a pair of home games, defending State Class D champ Rangeley tonight at 5 p.m. and Old Orchard Beach next Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., before visiting Hebron Academy next Thursday (6 p.m.) and rival Buckfield next Friday.

Richmond will also face Hyde School of Bath on Jan. 23 and Feb. 2.

Swimming

Last season was, to put it mildly, a special one for David Bright and Brunswick. Both the girls and boys won the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference meet and the girls won states, while the boys finished runner-up for the second straight season.

Bright will lose one Maine Swimmer of the Year in Nate Samson, but another, Caitlin Tycz, is back for her senior year. Lynsie Russell and Emma Blair also graduated and Bright said “we will need to develop more depth to remain competitive.”

On the boys side, freshman Nicco Bartone will bring his Long Reach Swim Club experience to the Dragons’ squad and “should contribute right away.”

Seniors Henry Raker and Eddie Capoldo, and juniors Brian Hess and Andrew Samson will lead the team.

Per usual, expectations are high.

“The girls hope to remain at or near the top of the KVAC and states,” Bright said. “We expect the competition to be tougher than in previous years, we’ll have to focus on everyone improving each week as the season goes on. The boys should be able to remain on top of the KVAC and could make a run at moving up at states. With a large team, if everyone improves as we go along, there could be a lot of scorers at states.”

Brunswick will travel to Edward Little on Tuesday (7 p.m.) before hosting Cony, which won the state meet on the boys side last year, next Friday at Bowdoin College, 7 p.m.

Mt. Ararat, which finished fifth at KVACs on both the boys and girls side last season, will be looking to improve on 18th- and 19thplace finishes at the state meet.

Steven Butts (boys coach), Tracy Doviak (girls coach) and company will begin their season by hosting Lewiston next Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Over at Morse, Todd Marco’s team is loaded this year. He didn’t lose any swimmers from a boys group that won the KVAC meet and a girls group that finished second. Both finished fifth at the state meet.

Ann Tolan, who broke a 50- yard freestyle state record at the state meet last year and will attend Penn State next fall, will lead the team. Brittany Kaler, Ella Martin, Leah Totman and Emma Warner also return.

For the boys, Tucker Banger, who took second in the 50 free at states, headlines in his senior year. Camden Fitzgerald, Ben Willertz, Max Gurney, Cameron Marco, Dominic Marco, Pat McKenna, Nic Hennin, Alex Gurney and Braden Olsen are all back to defend their KVAC title.

For the girls especially, Marco is thinking about getting over the hump.

“For the girls we have very high goals this season and feel we have a team that can win KVAC’s and also give a really good run for a state title,” he said. “The boys also have very high goals and are looking at winning KVAC’s and give a good run at a state title.”

Wiscasset swimmers will swim with Lincoln Academy/ Boothbay and begin their season with a meet in Boothbay tonight at 6 p.m.

Indoor track

Diane Fournier will be leading her Mt. Ararat squad onto the track up in Waterville for a season-opening KVAC meet on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.

Last season, the Eagles finished sixth (girls) and seventh (boys) at the KVAC meet and finished 20th and 22nd at states.

Fournier pointed to a number of freshman contributors, but the girls core will be Maranda Burgess, Kodie Crane, Rebecca French, Haley Frizzle, Colette Kinkade, Abby Kons, Hope Langworthy, Katherine Leckbee, Emily McCracken, Josie Miller, Lindsey Papa, Kelsey Scannevin, Emily Smith, Zoe Stevenson, Alana Weaver and Sara York.

For the boys, it’ll be Hunter Beebe, Matt Donovan, Sam Gatchell, Cameron Meier, Eagan Eldridge, Caden Pond, Tommy Leslie, Jack Mathieu, Mitchell Surace and Maximo Varela.

The Eagles have a straightforward goal this year.

“To have a healthy team throughout the season and to have returning and new athletes improve in their events (try new ones) and achieve individual as well as team success,” Fournier said.

Brunswick, along with runners from Morse, and coach Dave DeLois will be looking to improve on a pair of third-place finishes at the KVAC meet last winter. It’ll start with a season-opening KVAC meet at Colby College on Saturday at noon.

In Freeport, coach Brian Berkemeyer will lead the Falcons in another Western Maine Conference season. Both the boys and girls finished 10th at the Class B State meet at Bates College last year.

All Freeport meets will be at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham, with the first coming next Friday at 3:30 p.m.