Meduxnekeag race is Saturday

RAPID CITY – East Grand outdoor education and physical education teacher Jeremy Durost, stern, and East Grand student Kaitlyn Beaudoin, bow, approach Airline Rapids during last Sunday’s Machias River whitewater race. The pair came in second in the Junior/Senior division with a time of 1:56:30.
East Grand students compete in Challenge
    This Saturday is the Meduxnekeag River Canoe Race, and it is not only the third High School Challenge race, but it is also a MaCKRO Paddle-With-A-Kid event.
    “Find a child to paddle with and head to Houlton,” said Jeff Owen, president of MaCKRO. “Help make the High School and Junior/Senior classes the biggest of them all.”
    The last two Paddle With a Kid races will be June 12, the Union River Race and June 19, the Sebec River Race.
    The Meduxnekeag River Canoe Race has a category fitting to every paddler’s ability — novice to advanced — with a variety of categories. A paddler will be placed in a division to race against other paddlers of equal ability and similar equipment.
    Paddlers will strike out at 10 a.m. from the Wellington residence on the Station Road in New Limerick and finish the eight-mile whitewater course at the boat landing under the Highland Avenue bridge. This is the eighth of 11 Downriver Point Series races.
    Registration for the Meduxnekeag River race will be from 8-9:30 a.m. at the Wellingtons, with a race briefing at 9:30 a.m. and the race begins at 10 a.m. Cost is $15 adult and $10 youth.
    For more information, call Peter Blood at 532-2577 or e-mail cibpgb@myfairpoint.net Pre-register by April 29 and get a free T-shirt. All proceeds will benefit Dollars for Scholars.
    It was a blustery day on the Airline and six high school boats joined the masses at the start of the 2010 Machias River race, the second High School Canoe Racing Challenge race.
    According to Owen, paddlers from two schools camped out at the airline campground the night before the race, and by all accounts had enjoyed getting to know each other.
    “The race conditions were difficult, with low water, lots of rocks and little current,” Owen explained. “But the whitewater was still there. All six finished the grueling event, though not all did so completely dry — we have some new additions to the whitewater swim team — and Dan and Mark were awarded the traveling trophy for the High School class, which will be displayed at Orono High School for one year.”
JUNIOR/SENIOR PAIR – Wayne Daggett of Topsfield, stern, and East Grand student Sam Stewart, bow, begin their run of Airline Rapids during last Sunday’s Machias River whitewater canoe race. The pair came in third in the Junior/Senior Recreation Class with a time of 1:58:06.
    The results were as follows: Orono, Daniel Lesser/Mark Rowe, first, 1:38:36; Paul Robinson/Alex Introne, second, 1:42:46 and Schuyler Collett/Laurie Hamilton, fourth, 1:55:20. Total elapsed time for the top three boats was  5:16:42, with a time adjustment of two minutes per boat for six minutes. Adjusted total elapsed time was 5:10:42.
    East Grand paddlers were: Andrew Gilman/Mitchell Bartlett, third, 1:48:15; Cleve Kenyon/Alex Brittain, fifth, 2:05:00 and Jayne Cousins/Shaunna Beaudon, sixth, 2:26:27. Total elapsed time for the top three boats was 6:19:42, with a time adjustment of two minutes per boat for six minutes. Adjusted total elapsed time was 6:13:42.
    With still only two schools involved in this challenge, Orono takes a 2-0 lead over East Grand. It will be up to the 9-12 graders this Saturday at the Meduxnekeag, as all juniors in Maine will be taking the SATs that day.  
    And, if tradition holds true, there should be several more schools represented at the Meduxnekeag, Owen said.
    “This means that many more points may be available since schools will be awarded a point for every school they beat, making Orono’s current 2-0 lead possibly meaningless,” he added.
    The final event of this challenge will then be May 8 at the East Grand Adventure Race. Teams of two students are encouraged to compete in the full adventure, and their times from the canoeing leg will be used separately for this challenge. Standard recreational canoes only for teams involved in this challenge.
    Though East Grand didn’t do so well in the scoring category (third, fifth and sixth), the real winning took place in many others ways, said Dave Conley, East Grand outdoor education instructor.
    “The freshmen girls paired up for their second whitewater canoe race and did not dump,” said Conley. “Many firsts [happened] with students going beyond their comfort zone and running class III rapids and gaining lots of confidence. We had three other students paddle with Junior/Senior entries that day.”
    Wayne Daggett, Jeremy Durost and Terry Wescott assisted East Grand students in the Junior/Senior division with Durost and Kaitlyn Beaudoin coming in second and Daggett and Sam Stewart coming in third.
    “Our students are gearing up and pumped for Houlton canoe race,” said Conley. “We need rain.”