CARIBOU, Maine — The mother of one of the managers was a member of the last Caribou girls’ cross country team to win a regional championship.
It was in 1990 when Kim (Morgans) Barnes competed on the Vikings’ squad which took the Class A title. Her daughter, Shelby, manages the team that on Saturday made history by tallying a meet-low 46 points to cruise to the Class B title in the meet held at the Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast.
Caribou was 24 points better than runner-up Ellsworth and 28 ahead of third-place Mount Desert Island in the 11-team competition.
“We have been wanting this the whole season and everyone was just so excited today to go out and do our best. It’s definitely a big accomplishment,” said Abigail Wimmer, a sophomore who finished second in the meet with a personal-best 20:39.60 on the five-kilometer course as the Vikings backed up the Penobscot Valley Conference title they won the previous weekend.
“We were (confident), but there were some nerves, for sure, just because we wanted it so much,” she said.
Emily Austin, a junior, gave Caribou a boost by finishing second for the team and fifth overall in 21:07.85. She entered the race ranked 15th, but Viking coach Thomas Beckum said Austin has run “extremely well” and “put herself in the front pack and stayed there.”
Senior Sarae Greenier (21:30.61) and junior Ashley Violette (21:30.85) finished back to back in 12th and 13th positions, while freshman Kacie Haney was the other scorer by taking 17th in 21:55.71 in the 86-runner field.
“We have been working on getting out in good position from the start of the race and packing up in groups,” Beckum said. “The good thing is if someone has a bad race, there is someone on the team who reacts and steps it up as the race is unfolding.”
Sophomore Katrina Salch was 22nd and junior Maren Moir 23rd to round out Caribou’s runners.
The Presque Isle girls, led by the one-two punch of Madison Jandreau (15th in 21:39.5) and Isabelle Jackson (16th in 21:52.31), took fourth overall with 146 points and joined Old Town and Winslow as the other qualifying teams in the Class B state meet.
The Caribou boys once again featured three excellent individual performances as Dylan Marrero, Kyle Boucher and Evan Desmond were among the top seven out of the field of 100 runners, but the Vikes’ lack of depth put them in fourth overall out of 14 teams with 90 points. They were behind the meet champion Hermon Hawks, which had 81, and MDI and Waterville, who tied for second with 86. The Trojans won the tiebreaker to earn runner-up honors.
Marrero came in second to race winner Nicholas Dall of Waterville. Marrero’s 5K time of 16:46.07 was less than five seconds slower than Dall.
Boucher was sixth in 17:38.32 and Desmond seventh in 17:49.39, but Caribou’s next highest finishes were 38th and 40th, preventing the team from capturing top honors.
The Vikes did make it into next week’s state championships by finishing in the top seven, as did Presque Isle, which placed sixth with 166 points and was led by seniors Max Bartley and Jonah Clark. Bartley came in 11th in 18:02.46 and Clark was 14th in 18:04.78.
Bangor Daily News sportswriter Ernie Clark contributed to this story.
