CARIBOU, Maine — Dolcie Tanguay of MSSM and Dylan Marrero of Caribou raced their way to individual titles and the Viking squads captured victories at the Caribou Invitational Cross Country Meet, held under the lights on the 2.7-mile course at CHS Friday.
“It has been 13 or 14 years that we have been doing the night meet. It is definitely a unique experience for the student-athletes across Aroostook County that compete in cross country,” said Roy Alden, coach of the Viking boys. “The music, having an announcer and the course which circles back by the soccer field four different times makes for an extremely festive environment.”
Tanguay took first place in the girls’ race with a time of 18 minutes and 12.2 seconds. Two Greater Houlton Christian Academy runners followed as Bridget Hill had a time of 18:16.7 and Grace Graham crossed the finish line in 18:21.9. Naomi Kihn of MSSM was next in 18:25.5.
Caribou’s team win was the result of team members taking six of the next eight positions. Abigail Wimmer (18:29.1), Sarae Greenier (18:37.7) and Ashley Violette (18:52.4) were fifth through seventh, while Maren Moir (19:07.2), Kacie Haney (19:07.9) and Emily Austin (19:10) placed 10th through 12th.
Caribou’s Dylan Marrero, left, and Evan Desmond finished one-two in the boys’ division of the Caribou Invitational cross country meet Friday.
(Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg)
Caribou coach Thomas Beckum said Haney’s performance was the biggest surprise as the freshman came in 2:24 faster than her previous best time.
Those six Vikings sandwiched the Presque Isle duo of Isabelle Jackson (19:04.4) and Madison Jandreau (19:06.2), who were eighth and ninth, respectively.
Caribou scored 39 points to finish ahead of MSSM, which totaled 56, and GHCA, with 61. The Wildcats were fourth with 74 and Fort Kent was the only other full team competing and logged 140 points on the evening.
“The highlight was the team determination to stay together and push each other,” Beckum said. “We ran the best we have so far this season and proved we are capable of doing really well at the bigger meets later on this season.”
Jordyn Ritchie of Katahdin was 16th in 20:24.5, Jeannelle Ross of Hodgdon 24th in 22:14.3, Kelly Paradis of Fort Kent 33rd in 23:50 and Lauren Swimm of Houlton 48th in 31:06.2 to lead their schools. Fifty female runners participated.
In the boys’ competition, Marrero followed up his win at Presque Isle Sept. 9 by making it through the course in 15:30.7, which was just under six seconds faster than teammate Evan Desmond (15:36.6).
“Dylan is developing into one of the top runners in Eastern Maine,” Alden said.
Caribou had three others finish among the top 12 to cruise to another team title. The Vikings’ score of 22 made them the clear winner, as MSSM was the runner-up with 72. GHCA was just three points behind MSSM with 75 points, while Presque Isle took fourth with 82. Fort Kent and Madawaska both totaled 135 points, with the Warriors finishing ahead on a tie-breaker.
Individually, Joel Bond of Hodgdon was less than two seconds behind Desmond, coming in at 15:38.4. Caribou’s Kyle Boucher took fourth in 15:59.4 and Max Bartley of Presque Isle placed fifth in 16:02.2.
The remainder of the boys’ top 10 was made up of Wesley Ganglfinger of GHCA (16:03.8), Aaron Macek of Caribou (16:28.7), James Cyr of MSSM (16:32.2), Jonah Clark of Presque Isle (16:37.6) and Will Perkins of MSSM (16:43.6).
Malachai Willey was the other scoring runner for the victorious Vikings. He placed 12th overall in 17:25.
“I am pleased with how our athletes are developing a team concept and hopefully this will pay off during the championship part of our season,” Alden said.
Jeremy Cook of Houlton finished just ahead of Willey in 11th with a 17:23.1 clocking. Matthew Cyr of Madawaska was 14th in 17:36.4, Brandon Thibeault of Fort Kent 17th in 17:57.5 and Patrick Parham of Wisdom 29th in 18:55.1, were the others leading their teams in the race that included 52 runners.
