By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
BELFAST – The Maine Cross Country Festival of Champions is generally considered the most anticipated meet of the regular season, and the Caribou boys and girls teams proved to be up to the task.
In Saturday’s meet, held at the Troy Howard Middle School – the site of the Eastern Maine and state championship meets to be held later this month – the Caribou boys finished an impressive fourth out of 55 teams, while the girls were 10th out of 46. Teams from as far away as Connecticut, Rhode Island and Nova Scotia, Canada participated along with numerous Maine high schools.
“We had a great day,” said Viking boys coach Roy Alden. “We ran extremely well and the focus was there.”
Alden said his No. 1 runner, senior Christian Sleeper, “ran with confidence and showed a lot of courage staying with the leaders through the middle of the race.” He picked up four spots with a great finish and ended up 14th overall out of 735 runners on the 3.1-mile course with a time of 16:54.79.
Alden said Caleb Chapman and D.J. Flynn had outstanding second miles, with both passing between 20 and 30 people as they both had been in 60th place or farther back at the halfway mark of the race. Chapman ended up 36th in 17:25.48 and Flynn 42nd in 17:34.88.
The coach said Jesse Sandstrom had his breakthrough performance of the season, cutting more than a minute from his previous best five-kilometer time. He was 69th in the overall standings at 18:00.96. Ryan Washington was seventh among freshmen and was 84th overall in 18:15.31. Jake Michaud also “ran extremely well,” according to Alden, finishing 108th in 18:29.36.
In the girls’ race, Caribou was an impressive 10th in the crowded field, with Mackenzie Belyea leading the charge by placing 28th overall in 20:55.38. Mary Jo Sheehan took 40th in 21:14.1 and Dayna Michaud was 80th in 22:06.36. Other Viking scorers were Katie Plourde (143rd, 22:57.47) and Ashley Richards (162nd, 23:08.55). Kelly Kashian was Caribou’s sixth runner, just two places behind Richards in 23:09.29.
The Scarborough boys and Cheverus girls won team titles.
