Caribou XC meet unique
CARIBOU — The Vikings hosted their cross country invitational meet Saturday, which featured Presque Isle and five Penobscot Valley Conference schools as well as a few Class C teams from Aroostook County.
Carsyn Koch 
nears the finish line at Saturday’s invitational cross country meet in Caribou. The Washburn junior placed fourth in 20:29.86.
The format has seven separate races for both girls and boys on the 3.1-mile course, with every team’s No. 1 runner competing against each other, the No. 2s against each other and so on down to the No. 7 runners. The boys’ races were held first, followed by the girls.
On the girls’ side, the No. 1 race went to Ellsworth’s Aleta Looker, whose time of 19 minutes, 29.62 seconds was the fastest overall. Caribou’s Mackenzie Belyea was third in 20:06.23 and Washburn’s Carsyn Koch fourth in 20:29.86.
Bonnie Corey of Presque Isle was seventh in 24:42.92. Central Aroostook’s Kayla Cushman was 10th in 26:46.15 and Lucy Wilcox of Limestone-MSSM placed 11th in 27:10.53.
In the No. 2 event, Robyn Larrabee of the Vikings was the runner-up in 21:26.09. Carmen Bragg of Washburn took third in 21:54.79, while PI’s Mandy Graham placed sixth in 24:00.3.
Megan Goodell of Limestone-MSSM took ninth in 26:33.73 and Whitney Cote of CA was 11th in 29:33.42.
Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg
WILDCAT Bonnie Corey competed in No. 1s race at the Caribou Invitational cross country meet Saturday. Her time of 24:42.92 placed her seventh in the event.
For No. 3 runners, Nerissa Larrabee of Caribou was second in 21:27.58 and Mackenzie Worcester of Washburn third in 22:14.3. Emily Colligan of PI was fifth in 23:50.67 and the Panthers’ Shannon Scully was 10th in 29:26.64.
The fourth girls’ race saw Kristin Macek of Caribou place second in 22:41.61 and Emmy Churchill of Washburn third in 22:47.11. Erica Corey of the Wildcats was fourth in 25:38.06.
In the fifth race, Mackenzie Deveau of Caribou was third in 24:13.3, with Marianne Helton of Washburn fourth in 24:51.26. Presque Isle’s Matteah Michaud placed sixth in 27:33.24.
The No. 6 race saw Caribou’s Chelsea Haney placed second in 23:05.23, Washburn’s Laina Mette fourth in 25:27.14 and Kayla Girardin of PI sixth in 29:27.77.
The seventh and final girls’ race was won by Caribou’s Chelsea Bard, whose time was 22:15.47. Hannah Heald of Washburn was fourth in 25:06.28 and Presque Isle’s Shannon Sweeney seventh in 33:03.82.
For the girls’ results, Mount Desert Island had the low score of five points to place first. Caribou was second with nine and John Bapst third with 16. Washburn had 17, good for fourth place, with Ellsworth fifth (22), Presque Isle sixth (27), Old Town seventh (34) and Hermon eighth (36).
The first-place finisher in the boys’ No. 1 race, and also first overall, was Ellsworth’s Dan Curts. His time of 15:48.01 was nearly 1:30 faster than runner-up Ron Lund of Caribou, who came in at 17:17.84.
Also in the race among No. 1 runners, PI’s Saul Nunez took eighth in 19:47.44 and Jacob Canney of Central Aroostook 10th in 21:36.05.
PIHS’ Mandy Graham 
gives it her all as she approaches the finish line at Saturday’s Caribou Invitational cross country meet. Graham had a time of 24:00.3 on the 3.1-mile course.
Local results in the No. 2 event include Lucas Kinney in second in 18:19.03 and Trevor Levesque of PI in sixth in 19:27.64.
For the No. 3 competitors, Ryan Washington of Caribou claimed the win in 17:33.82. Noah Caron of Washburn was fifth in 19:13.33, Matt Tilley of PI sixth in 20:20.28 and Connor Todd of CA 10th in 26:10.47.
In the fourth race, Caribou’s Brendan Cyr was the runner-up in 18:38.31. Frank Nunez of PI was fifth in 20:39.1 and Michael Ericson of Washburn sixth in 20:50.84.
For No. 5s, the Wildcats’ Dustin Drabek was fourth in 20:51.01 and Caribou’s Derick Michaud fifth in 20:58.52.
Keith Draper of Caribou was second in the No. 6 event in 20:23.59 and Noah Rossignol of PI was fourth in 22:28.44.
The final boys’ race, which included No. 7 runners, saw Tyler Strid of Caribou finish as runner-up in 20:35.73. Joel Shay of the ’Cats was third in 20:52.83.
Ellsworth’s total of five points provided the team title. The host Vikings were the runners-up with nine and MDI was third with 12. Rounding out the list of full teams competing were John Bapst (17), Presque Isle (21), Old Town (29) and Hermon (32).
The next local cross country meet will be held at 4 p.m. Friday in Presque Isle. Local teams, as well as others from throughout Eastern Maine, are expected to make the trip north for the meet, which takes place at the University of Maine at Presque Isle.
