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Shealyn Brochu of Morse leads Teanne Ewings of Houlton/Greater Houlton Christian and Zoe Carroll of York during the 1-mile race at the Class B indoor track championships at Bates College in Lewiston. Brochu won the race. Ewings placed second and Carroll came in third. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Shealyn Brochu has already broken several school records this outdoor track season — and she’s not yet finished.

The senior holds Morse school records in the 400-, 800-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter races. With just two meets left in the season, she will look to lower her record-breaking times to make them even harder to reach.

“My goals for myself is what keeps me motivated,” Brochu said. “And each time I break those goals, I’ll set a new one the next day.”

The two-time Varsity Maine All-State runner came into the spring season with her sights on setting the 800 and 1,600 school records, both set by Margie Van Orden in 1996.

Brochu set the 1,600 record by a tenth of a second at the first meet of the season. It only took another 13 days — not 29 years — for the record to fall again, as Brochu dropped 6.53 seconds to break the 5-minute mark during a May 8 meet at Skowhegan. That same day, Brochu also claimed the school record in the 3,200 (10:50.04), smashing Vanessa Allen’s 26-year-old record by over 44 seconds.

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A week later at Leavitt, Brochu finally broke the 800 school record (2:15.23), beating the previous mark by over two seconds. Two days later, she set the current 1,600 school record of 4:53.44, which is ranks in the top five in state history.

“She’s got boatloads of talent, she’s got a great work ethic, but I’ve definitely seen, the last six months, her training has really reached a new level,” Morse coach Brent Luchies said. “And I think, when you pair that with her talent, you kind of see that. So I don’t want to say I’m surprised, because I know she works really hard, but same time, that’s pretty amazing, what she’s done.”

Although now she can see the benefits, it took some time for Brochu to start putting in that extra work. She says she didn’t take training seriously until the summer before her junior cross country season. Brochu also said she focused on the mental discipline to stay committed outside of practice.

Last fall, she took a step back in order to progress. Instead of continuing to double up with the Morse cross country and soccer teams, Brochu opted to focus her energy on the pitch, where she scored seven goals from her forward position.

“It was pretty difficult (to balance cross country and soccer for three years), especially with school,” Brochu said. “I felt that I was slipping a bit, so that’s why I decided to not do both sports this year. But it was also difficult that I wasn’t able to practice with cross country (in previous seasons), and I would kind of just show up to the meets with no training. … I also felt a little bit burnt out because of the two sports in the fall. This year, I felt that I was able to rest up a lot for the (indoor) season.”

The added rest helped Brochu have one of the best indoor seasons of her high school career. She moved away from the 400 (an event in which she has won two outdoor Class B titles and one indoor state title) and won the KVAC B crown in the 800, 1-mile and 2-mile events. She won the state title in the mile and set a personal record at New Englands (5:00.13, seventh-best all-time in Maine history), before racing at the New Balance Nationals Indoor meet in Boston.

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The momentum carried over to the spring.

At Friday’s KVAC small school championship in Bath, Brochu will look to contribute as many points for a team championship and stay ready for the Class B meet on June 7. There, in Freeport, she will go for her next goals: Shaving a couple seconds off her 800 time and improving on her third-place finish at last year’s state meet.

Brochu will then decide whether she’ll continue to compete at regional and national levels. She’s making sure to treasure the final practices with her friends and teammates.

“You would never know just talking to her, how good of a runner she really is, just because (of the) way she carries herself,” Luchies said. “She’s very humble, super supportive. Like I said, we have a lot of freshmen on the team this year, my daughter is one of the freshmen on the team, and they just speak so highly of her. So I think she’s really kind of raised the floor of the whole program just by being who she is.”

Cooper Sullivan covers high school and collegiate sports in Brunswick and the surrounding communities. He is from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he studied at Wake Forest University ('24) and held...

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