MEDFORD, Mass.  -- Senior Melissa Bellemore (Manchester, N.H./West) won three events and freshman Emily Artesani (Orono, Maine) won two more to lead the University of Southern Maine Huskies women's indoor track and field team to the New England Alliance and Little East Conference championships for the seventh straight year Saturday in a meet held at Tufts University in Medford, Mass.
    
In the Alliance meet, which features 10 schools from the Little East Conference and the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference, Southern Maine captured championship with 184 points.  Keene State College was second with 132 points, followed by Eastern Connecticut State University with 116.50 points, Westfield State College with 71 points, and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth rounded out the top five with 60 points.
    
The Huskies took the Little East crown with 191 points followed by Keene State with 135 and Eastern Connecticut with 129.
    
Bellemore captured the pole vault for the fourth straight year by clearing 3.42 meters (11 feet, 2 1/2 inches), the long jump for the second time with a jump of 4.89 meters (16-0 1/2), and the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 9.03 seconds in the finals.  Bellemore's win in the hurdles was her first after finishing second three straight years.  During her four-year career, Bellemore
has won seven Alliance titles.
    
Artesani won the 200 meters and the 400 meters with her times of 27.06 seconds and 1:01.48, respectively.
    
Other winners for USM included freshman Sarah Hale (Naples, Maine/Lake Region) in the 55-meter dash with her time of 7.63 seconds, and junior Christa Hutchinson [Gorham, Maine/Falmouth (Mass.)] in the 600 meters with a time of 1:41.63.
    
Earning second place finishes were junior Gabrielle Cyr (Fort Kent, Maine) in the mile and 3,000 meters with times of 5:24.25 and 11:23.23, respectively, sophomore Emily Poliquin (Lisbon Falls, Maine/Lisbon) in the triple jump with a leap of 10.68 meters (35-0 1/2), and senior Caterina Riitano (Sangerville, Maine/Piscataquis Comm.) in the weight throw with a personal best throw of 14.07 meters (46-2).  Poliquin also contributed a third place result in the long jump with a jump of 4.69 meters (15-4 3/4).
    
Freshman Christina Hickey (Rockland, Maine) brought home a third place finish in the 600 meters with her time of 1:47.52.  Sophomore Caitlin Handcock (Cumberland, Maine) took third in the high jump clearing 1.54 meters (5-0 1/2).
    
Southern Maine will host the New England Division III Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships next Saturday (February 17) at the USM Field House.  The first event, the pentathlon, gets underway at 10:00 a.m.  Throwing and jumping events will start at 11:00 a.m., and the first running events  begin at 11:30 a.m.