By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
BELFAST – It had been 12 years since an Eastern Maine cross country team had won a state championship and 72 years since Caribou High School had captured a state title. But both those droughts came to an end Saturday.
Contributed photo/Laurie Sheehan
Christian Sleeper of the Caribou Vikings stays ahead of Erskine Academy’s Eben Hodgkins and a group of other runners during Saturday’s Class B cross country state meet. Sleeper ended up in fourth place overall and helped the Vikings to the state championship.
The Vikings received a fourth-place performance from senior Christian Sleeper, while Caleb Chapman and D.J. Flynn both landed in the top 20 and Ryan Washington and Jesse Sandstrom were among the top 40 as the Vikings compiled 92 points to defeat runner-up Falmouth (100), third-place Cape Elizabeth (109) and 10 other Class B teams.
Sleeper finished in 16:36.94 on the 3.1-mile course, which was a 48-second improvement from the previous week’s Eastern Maine meet, also held in Belfast.
“I had a lot of stuff going on the week before, but I felt a lot better this week. We took our training down a bit and I took a breather at school and didn’t stay up as late and that really helped,” said Sleeper. “The first mile was about a 4:57 or 4:58, which is faster than I thought, but I felt good and when I got past the one-mile mark I saw coach [Roy Alden] and kind of smiled at him. I knew it’d be a good day.”
Chapman, in his first year on the cross country team, came in 13th in 17:15.98 and Flynn was 17th in 17:19.29.
“It helped always being able to see Caleb close by,” Flynn said. “We had passed a couple of Falmouth runners about a mile in and we just kept going.”
Washington, who had registered a top-10 at the EM meet, took 33rd in 17:44.55 and Sandstrom placed 36th in 17:48.07.
Jake Michaud (53rd) and Kjetil Rossignol (70th) were Caribou’s other competitors among the 108-runner field.
“It was great for these kids and seeing how they came together and focused on doing what had to be done,” said Alden, who has been a chasing a state championship since he began coaching high school sports nearly 30 years ago. This is his 21st season as the boys cross country coach at CHS.
“They seemed to handle the pressure of the situation with unbelievable pride and dignity,” he added.
The last year a Caribou team won a state championship was 1938. That team included Maine Sports Hall of Famer Emery Plourde.
“It makes the accomplishment that much bigger since it’s been that long,” Sleeper said.
“It’s a good feeling to know we had broken the barrier that had been keeping us back all these years,” Flynn said. “Seventy two years is a long time.”
Next up for Caribou is the New England Championships, which will take place Nov. 13 in Thetford, Vt. The team last qualified for that meet in 2007 when it placed second in the state meet.
