Presque Isle runners debut at University of Maine at Orono

    The cross country season got underway for the Presque Isle varsity teams Saturday as they participated in a competition held at the University of Maine at Orono.
The Maine Open was the event and featured three other schools — Caribou, George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill and Hermon.
The Wildcat boys placed second with 58 points, with Caribou winning with 26. The PI girls took third with 78, behind GSA (25) and Caribou (30).
Leading the way for the boys was Jason Bartley. The junior came in fourth out of 41 competitors with a time of 18 minutes and 28.98 seconds on the five-kilometer course.
Three seniors followed for PI. Noah Rossignol was 13th in 20:04.48, Cristian Nunez 14th in 20:08.92 and Austin Albert 15th in 20:10.8.
For the girls, junior Mandy Graham had the Wildcats’ top finish, coming in 12th place in 23:19.82. Isabelle Jackson, a freshman, placed 15th in 23:33.46, while junior Emily Colligan was 17th in 23:48.99.
The race featured 42 competitors.
At Fort Kent last Wednesday, local Class C schools met for their second meet of the season.
The Washburn girls scored 15 points as the only complete team. Emmy Churchill placed first for the second consecutive meet, winning this one on a three-mile course by fashioning at time of 23:12. Teammate Mackenzie Worcester was next in 24:12.
The Beaver boys scored 44 points to finish behind Fort Kent, which had a perfect 15.
Coming in sixth overall was Washburn’s Michael Ericson, whose time was 21:39.