PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Eleven boys teams and 10 girls teams assembled at the University of Maine at Presque Isle Saturday afternoon for the annual cross country invitational hosted by Presque Isle High School.
In the end, it was a great day for both the girls and boys teams from Caribou, who captured team championships. Bridget Hill of Greater Houlton Christian Academy claimed the girls’ individual title and Dylan Marrero of the victorious Vikings was the first-place boys’ finisher.
The Caribou girls totaled 54 points to defeat runner-up Ellsworth (70), third-place MSSM (94) and fourth-place GHCA (97), along with six other squads.
The Caribou boys had a low score of 49 points to best Hermon, who finished second with 75. Ellsworth (89) and John Bapst (100) rounded out the top four out of 11 teams involved.
In the girls’ race, Hill posted a winning time of 21 minutes and 18.7 seconds on the five-kilometer (3.1-mile) course. She was 3.1 seconds faster than runner-up Dolcie Tanguay of MSSM, whose time was 21:21.8.
The remainder of the girls’ top 10 included Trinity Montigny of Ellsworth (21:45.8), Grace Graham of GHCA (21:47.8), Audree O’Meara of Old Town (22:03.8), Abigail Wimmer of Caribou (22:11.2), Ashley Violette of Caribou (22:11.3), Abby Mazgaj of Ellsworth (22:13.1), Naomi Kihn of MSSM (22:17.8) and Teagan Ewings of GHCA (22:24.7).
Caribou had three others in the top 17 to allow the team to post the low score among teams. Sarae Greenier was 11th, Maren Moir 13th and Emily Austin 17th.
Madison Jandreau was the top Presque Isle runner, finishing 12th in 22:44.9. Jordyn Ritchie, Katahdin’s lone competitor, was 18th in 23:40 and Madison Miller was Washburn’s fastest in 23:46, good for 19th. Alyssa Abbotoni of Houlton was 28th in 25:07.8 and Jeannelle Ross of Hodgdon 35th in 25:58.4 as their school’s top performers. Breanna Beaulieu paced Fort Kent with a time of 28:08.6, placing 46th overall. Sixty six females competed in the race.
For the boys, Marrero saved his best for the final half of the race and won by 20 seconds over runner-up Ben Spear of John Bapst. Marrero’s winning time was 17:48.3 and Spear crossed the line in 18:08.4.
Joel Bond of Hodgdon led the remainder of the top 10 in 18:23.6. Kyle Boucher of Caribou was fourth in 18:38.9 and his teammate, Evan Desmond, followed in 18:51.8. Grabbing the sixth through 10th slots were Matthew Frost of Ellsworth (19:02.1), Max Bartley of Presque Isle (19:10.9), Will Perkins of MSSM (19:14.3), Matthew Shea of Ellsworth (19:18.3) and Wesley Ganglfinger of GHCA (19:25.3).
Caribou’s depth contributed to its win as their other scorers were 17th-place Aaron Macek and 26th-place Malachai Willey.
Devon Maynard was Washburn’s fastest runner as he completed the course in 20:51.6, good for 31st place out of 75 runners. Houlton’s Jeremy Cook came in 34th in 20:55.7. Matthew Cyr of Madawaska was 37th in 21:06.3 and Fort Kent’s Isaac Robichaud came in at 22:26.1, placing him 49th in the standings.
The junior varsity girls’ winner was Katrina Salch of Caribou in 23:57.3 and Nathan Pitre, also of Caribou, was first in the JV boys’ race in 20:58.9.
The next meet is the Caribou Invitational, to be held under the lights at Caribou High School beginning at 7 p.m.
