BELFAST, Maine — Cross country runners from Houlton and Greater Houlton Christian Academy joined athletes from around the state Saturday to participate in the 14th annual Maine XC Festival of Champions.
A total of 614 females and 811 males participated in the massive race, which featured runners from all three Maine Principal’s Association classes (65 schools), as well as participants from Rhode Island (4), New Hampshire (1), Vermont (1), and one school coming stateside from Prince Edward Island, Canada.
“One week out from one of the oldest races in the state we find ourselves at the largest sporting event in Maine High School athletics which resulted in some fast times and a great showing for our runners,” said Houlton coach Chris Rines. “Several of our kids had outstanding efforts on one of the most exciting courses in the state. The day also served as a good learning opportunity as Belfast is also the host of the Eastern Maine Regional Championships in three weeks. Many of these same schools who are in our class and region were at this race today and in addition to learning the course we also got to run against our opponents and learn from the competitive experience.”
Action on the course again came from the Shires’ two frontrunners — Isaiah Brown and Rylee Warman. “The two experienced racers posted some great times and really made excellent claims to see great success in both our Aroostook and Penobscot Valley Conference leagues as well as our Class C east region,” Rines said.
Brown, finished in a time of 17 minutes, 17 seconds, which was the fastest time posted by an Aroostook County boy on the day, and was 3rd fastest of Penobscot Valley Conference and Eastern C runners, and among the tops for Class C overall. He finished 37th out of the field of 811 boys.
Warman ran a solid race, and a strong smart first mile set her up to pass people over the following two miles, Rines said. Warman nearly broke into the top 100 girls. She finished 103rd with a time of 21:34.62. “Riley posted the 3rd fastest time by an Aroostook county girl behind one Presque Isle runner, and just 1 second back from a Caribou runner,” he said. “She was also 13th for PVC finishers and in the top 20 of all of Class C.”
Olivia Winslow (23:15.56) and Adam Casillas (19:29.47) also posted their fastest course times having run it twice last year. Winslow finished more than a minute and half ahead of her time from a year ago, which was her fastest of the 2014 season. Casillas best came out of regional last season and he was able to shave a few seconds off of that time this race.
Casillas finished 258, while Winslow was 238.
Victoria Holmes (27:05.05) posted yet another season low time, placing 475. “She has been improving every week and those drops in times as going to be valuable for her and us as a team come championship season,” Rines said.
First time Festival attendees Kate Newman (32:56.01) and Tim Glatter (25:12.43) also ran very well among a much larger than they are used to field of runners, the coach said. “Like Holmes, their times have been improving week after week and I am looking forward to see exactly how far we can get them down as the season starts to close,” he said.
Glatter placed 751, while Newman was 603.
The runners from Greater Houlton Christian Academy also had a strong showing as they dashed over the course with some of their fastest times of the season. Sophomores Wesley Ganglfinger and Grace Graham had their first career runs on the course and posted solid times against tough competition. Ganglfinger completed the course in 19:01 (187) to finish in the top quarter of boys finishers, while Graham continued her break out season with a time of 23:49 (282).
First-time Festival runners Cole Winslow, Joshua Supper, and Isaac Potter ran strong races as well. Winslow and Potter competed in the “freshman only” race, but their efforts held up well among the boys field as a whole. Supper’s time of 23:09.45 (672) was a season best and helped the Eagles on the team scoring. Winslow finished in 19:18.52 (241), while Potter completed the course in 23:52.86 (700).
Alex Walker, the only Eagle runner from a year ago with experience on the course, finished in 27:14 (788).
Graham was the lone Eagle girl runner.
On Sept. 26, one of the longest running high school invitationals in the state — the 66th Old Town Sectional Invitational — yielded some fast times for Shire runners.
“The cooler weather and relatively flat race course made for some great racing and I am pleased to report every single one of our runners hit new personal best for their 5k,” Rines said. “Huge time drops came out of both Glatter and Newman as they paced the course in 22:36, down 4:30 from previous best, and 32:02, down 7:08 from previous best, respectfully. The one downside was that this trend was not exclusive to us, across the board several schools enjoyed the similar success so our placing may not have improved but we will certainly take the fast times any day. On the team side of things Orono would run away with the crowns across all four races.”
Shire boys results, with pace times in parentheses, were: 4, Brown 16:53.73 (5:27); 31, Casillas, 18:41.20 (6:01); JV34, Glatter, 22:36.60 (7:17). Shire girls results were: 14, Warman 20:56.43 (6:45); 32, Winslow, 22:38.88 (7:18); JV22, Holmes, 27:01.88 (8:43); JV40, Newman 32:02.47 (10:20).
