ORONO, Maine — Coach Tom Beckum’s Caribou girls’ cross country team saw its strong season continue when it captured its first-ever Class B Penobscot Valley Conference championship Saturday.
“We knew we had a chance of winning but it is never a guarantee,” Beckum said. “It was a special day where everyone ran their best. The team is really driven to win this year.”
The Vikings featured the top two runners and had two other runners among the top five in scoring a meet low 25 points, which was far ahead of runner-up Ellsworth (70) and six other teams running the course in Orono.
Caribou’s Dylan Marrero, left, and Evan Desmond, competing in the Presque Isle Invitational last month, were the top two finishers at the PVC Championships in Orono on Saturday. (Kevin Sjoberg)
Abigail Wimmer was the individual champion, crossing the finish line of the 3.1-mile race in 21 minutes and 25.42 seconds. Sarae Greenier was second in 21:55.86.
Also for Caribou, Ashley Violette took the fourth position in 22:02.73 and Emily Austin was fifth in 22:03.82. The team’s other scorer was Kacie Haney, who took 13th place in 22:48.99.
Maren Moir was 15th and Katrina Salch 17th as the Vikes’ other competitors.
Presque Isle came in fourth place as a team with 121 points. Madison Jandreau finished 10th in 22:20.8 and Isabelle Jackson was 11th in 22:28.94.
Ellie Smith was 26th for the Wildcats in 24:34.06 and teammate Taylor Ellis 35th in 26:25.22. Madelyn Wing came in 39th, Amanda Winslow 40th and Jasmine LeClair 43rd to round out the list of PI competitors. A total of 51 runners participated.
The Caribou boys featured the top three finishers, but Hermon’s depth proved too much as the Hawks prevented the Vikings from claiming their sixth consecutive PVC title.
Dylan Marrero won the race in 17:49.88 to take his second consecutive PVC individual title. Evan Desmond was second in 18:05.76 and Kyle Boucher third in 18:18.95, but Hermon had the eighth, ninth, 12th, 13th and 14th finishers to score 56 points and beat Caribou by two.
“Dylan, Evan and Kyle have performed consistently well all year and had outstanding races again,” said Viking coach Roy Alden. “They did a great job executing our race plan and using an extremely hilly course to their advantage.”
The next Viking runner to finish was Malachai Willey, who came in 24th. Aaron Macek was 28th and Calvin Mokler 39th, while John O’Meara, normally the team’s No. 4 runner, did not finish due to a bruised tendon in his foot.
“All season long we have struggled with the development of a fifth runner and this became a bigger problem this meet,” Alden said. “When the gap becomes close to two minutes between your top five runners, that’s just too much space for other teams to fill in.”
Presque Isle came in fifth with 105 points, with Max Bartley clocking the course in 18:36.23 to take sixth out of 61 runners.
Jonah Clark was 18th in 19:35.6 and Trace Cyr 23rd in 19:53.09 for the Wildcats. Owen McQuarrie took 27th, Carter Jackson 31st, Michael Perkins 49th and Alec Smith 55th.
Caribou runners Rylee Saucier and Ethan Holmquist were the JV race champions.
The Class B regional championships are next and will be held at Belfast on Saturday, Oct. 21.
