CUMBERLAND, Maine — The season ended for the Caribou cross country teams Saturday, with the boys placing fourth and the girls ninth in the Class B state meet.
Coach Roy Alden’s Viking boys, who won last weekend’s regional meet held in Belfast, recorded the highest point total for North division teams. However, they could not compete with the South trio of Freeport, York and Greely of Cumberland, who all finished ahead of them in the final team standings.
We knew [those] teams are extremely strong and they proved that Saturday,” Alden said. “Obviously, we hoped to do better, but by the time [our leaders] had gotten to the one-mile mark, they were in the high 30s and 40s and on a hard hilly course against this level of competition, it becomes hard to make up ground.
Caribou did receive an exemplary performance from senior Chathu Karunasiri, who capped a brilliant season with an 11th-place effort. His time of 17 minutes and 33.25 seconds on the 3.1-mile course bested 100 other competitors.
Also for the Vikes, senior Tsion MacLeod was 28th in 18:15.21, senior Caleb Hunter 33rd in 18:26.84 and sophomore Daniel Randolph 34th in 18:27.36. The team’s fifth runner and other scorer was senior Elijah Verhoff in 18:43.02.
Freeport, paced by individual winner Chandler Vincent (16:34.72), scored 52 points, York had 62 and Greely 80 as the meet’s top three teams. Caribou was next with 131, ahead of Yarmouth (138), Cape Elizabeth (193) and eight other teams.
“I am extremely proud of this team,” Alden added. “They exemplify the concept of what a team should be. They competed with character and heart throughout the season, making the most of their talents.”
The Caribou girls, who were the runners-up at the Regionals a week earlier, could manage only a ninth-place finish statewide as the teams from the South proved too strong in taking seven of the top eight spots.
Yarmouth held off Greely and York for first place, tallying a meet-low 65 points. Greely had the top individual in Katherine Leggat-Barr, who crossed the finish line in 19:11.71 to beat a field of 104 competitors.
Recording the fastest time for Caribou, which logged 232 points, was junior Simone Michaud, who was 32nd out of a field of 104 racers with a time of 21:47.24. Classmate Emma Belyea took 41st in 22:02.87, followed by freshman Emily Austin in 54th with a 22:32.47 clocking. Junior Julia Page (69th) and sophomore Sarae Greenier (72nd) were fourth and fifth for the Vikings.
Washburn senior Derek Baker came in 15th place overall in the Class C boys’ race, ending up with a time of 17:58.39. The Beavers scored 216 points and placed ninth out of 12 teams, with sophomore Devon Maynard ended up 41st in 19:21.95. Junior McCall Turner was 71st, senior Noah Caron 79th and senior Kevin Jordan 86th as the team’s other scorers.
George Stevens Academy, which had the race champion in John Hassett (16:46.18), also claimed the team title. Orono was second and Lisbon third. One hundred and two runners participated, including Keith Languet of Limestone-MSSM, who was 53rd in 19:51.04.
The Orono girls cruised to the C girls’ team championship as three Red Riot runners were the fastest overall, led by Tia Tardy, who was the overall winner in 19:43.81.
Washburn came in ninth out of 10 teams with 214 points. Freshman Kassie Farley led the Beavers with a time of 22:47.89, placing her 32nd overall out of 93 runners. Emilia Churchill, a senior, was the second Washburn runner to finish and 45th overall, doing so in a time of 23:27.7.
Kristen Sarmiento was 69th, Mollie Clark 77th and Lexie Carney 89th to round out Washburn’s meet scorers.
Allison Johnson represented Limestone-MSSM and took 47th place in 23:29.71.
