Boys win, girls take third in XC meet

The Caribou boys’ varsity cross country team made it two victories in two starts by taking the Ellsworth Invitational, held Saturday.
It comes a week after the Vikings also won the Maine Open held at the University of Maine at Orono.
“It’s a great start,” said Caribou coach Roy Alden. “This is going to be an exciting team to watch as they improve throughout the season. I think we will surprise a few people.
“They handled the excitement and pressure of a big race really well. I was very pleased with how hard they worked on a very tough course in very hot uncomfortable conditions,” the coach added. “We have potential to have six or seven athletes racing a 5K race 20 to 30 seconds apart by late in the season.”
Caribou had five runners in the top 16, while two other Vikings were among the 25 fastest out of a total field of 90.
Leading the Vikes was freshman Evan Desmond, who placed seventh in 18 minutes and 34.54 seconds on the three-mile course. Classmate Daniel Randolph was 11th in 18:57.08 and senior Mitchell St. Peter 12th in 18:57.27.
Chathu Karunasiri, a junior, was 15th in 19:03.77, while junior Caleb Hunter claimed the 16th position in 19:15.61.
Tsion MacLeod and Lukas Lagasse were Caribou’s other runners. MacLeod came in 20th place in 19:36.2 and Lagasse 25th in 19:58.99.
The individual champion was George Stevens Academy sophomore John Hassett, whose winning time was 17:40.42.
Caribou posted 56 points to earn the team title, with Orono the runner-up with 94. GSA took third with 107. Nine other teams competed.
The Viking girls had another solid meet, taking third place out of nine teams. They were led by sophomore Madeline Gudde, who took the 13th position overall out of 75 runners in 22:52.02. Not far behind was teammate Anya O’Meara, a freshman, whose time of 23:09.88 was good for 16th place.
The Larrabee twins, Robyn and Nerissa, came in 20th and 21st, respectively. Robyn’s time was 23:38.09 and Nerissa’s 23:43.86.
Senior Chelsea Haney was 23rd in 23:46.72.
Rounding out the field for Caribou were freshman Adessa Judd (29th, 24:33.38) and sophomore Emma Belyea (34th, 25:02.51).
“The good news is we beat all Class B schools, including MDI, who are the returning three-time state champions,” said Caribou coach Thomas Beckum. “It was a really hot and humid day and I told the girls that everybody has to run in the same conditions and what is going to separate runners from other runners is going to be the ones who could be mental tough and get though the heat.”
He said the Vikings need to work on running as a team, and not as individuals.
“Once we get everybody on board running together from the beginning of the race, we will do better,” Beckum added.
Winning the race was Mattanawcook’s Tia Tardy with a time of 20:17.84.
Orono was the team champion with 49 points. GSA had 63 and Caribou 78.
The Vikings finished ahead of Mount Desert Island and five other schools.
At Limestone last Wednesday, the Eagle girls and Fort Kent boys were the only schools participating to field full teams.
Allison Johnston of Limestone-MSSM came in second overall to Fort Kent’s Jordan Tanguay. Johnston’s time was 24:10.9 on the 3.1-kilometer course. Tanguay won in 23:08.2.
The other Eagle runners were Naomi Kihn (25:15.7), Sierra Dann (25:30.5), Elly Bencivenga (25:32.2) and Eva Farkas (26:24.2).
Three runners took part for the Limestone-MSSM boys. George Spahn was sixth in 21:21.1, Peter Emidy eighth in 21:56.2 and Jason Webb ninth in 22:36.8.
The Caribou Invitational is the next meet scheduled and will take place Saturday afternoon behind Caribou High School. All the Aroostook County schools are invited as well as a few Penobscot Valley Conference foes of the Vikes.