Caribou’s Evan Desmond, competing in the Presque Isle Invitational last month, placed second Saturday at the Red Riot Challenge in Orono. Teammate Kyle Boucher, who is behind Desmond, placed fourth in the race. (Kevin Sjoberg | Star-Herald)
ORONO, Maine — Caribou senior Evan Desmond registered a second-place finish out of 51 runners in the sixth annual Orono Red Riot Challenge cross country meet held Saturday.
Desmond raced to a time of 18 minutes and 15.57 seconds on the 3.1-mile course, which was 34 seconds behind race champion Jonathan Steelman of host Orono.
Kyle Boucher was fourth in 18:28.22 and Dylan Marrero sixth in 18:55.6 for the Vikes, who with 37 points placed second as a team behind Orono, which posted 31. Twelve schools competed, with seven having enough runners to register team scores.
John O’Meara came in 14th and Aaron Macek 16th as the other Caribou scoring runners.
Caribou finished as the runner-up to Orono in the girls’ competition as well. The Vikes tallied 38 points, 13 behind Orono. Old Town was the only other full team participating, but four other schools entered runners.
Sarae Greenier led the way for Caribou with her fifth-place finish out of 26 runners. She crossed the finish line in 22:45.52. Teammate Ashley Violette was sixth in 22:45.97. Maren Moir took eighth (23:15.86), while Emily Austin was ninth (23:18.08) and Kacie Haney 10th (23:21.35).
Ethan Holmquist and Nathan Pitre finished one-two in the JV boys’ race, while Olivia Austin came in fifth for the girls.
Caribou returns to the same course on Saturday for the Penobscot Valley Conference Championships, which begin at noon.
