Ashley Violette, left, and Sarae Greenier of the Caribou Vikings leave the starting line for their race in the Ellsworth Invitational Saturday. Violette placed fourth, Greenier was 12th and the team placed first out of 10 teams. (Courtesy of Michael Mandell-Ellsworth American)
ELLSWORTH, Maine — The Caribou cross country teams have made their presence felt early this season.
At Saturday’s Ellsworth Invitational, the first meet of the season, the Vikings were able to capture team titles in both the boys’ and girls’ competitions.
The Caribou boys nipped runner-up George Stevens Academy by a mere five points, 67-72, while the Viking girls, with 43 points, were 14 better than second-place Orono. Nine Penobscot Valley schools, along with Sanford, participated.
Dylan Marrero was in second place “and had a chance to win the race,” according to his coach, Roy Alden, with approximately half a mile remaining. Marrero settled for fourth place, leading the way for Caribou. The junior’s time of 16 minutes and 52.19 seconds on the five-kilometer course was less than 12 seconds slower than first-place finisher Brendan Penfold of Deer Isle-Stonington.
Also for the Vikes, Evan Desmond placed fifth at 17:27.37, Kyle Boucher seventh in 17:46.4 and John O’Meara 13th in 18:33.42. A field of 73 runners participated.
“Evan was packed with the leaders for most of the race, Kyle ran well and improved his position by passing multiple kids in the second loop and John’s performance was very promising for his first varsity race,” Alden said.
The team’s other scorer, Aaron Macek, was 21st in 19:07.85 and “had the best race of his life,” according to Alden. “He put in a great summer and is going to continue to improve.”
For the Caribou girls, Ashley Violette came in fifth in 21:06.84, Abigail Wimmer was 10th in 21:32.85 and two teammates (Sarae Greenier in 12th in 21:43.55 and Maren Moir in 16th in 22:00.61) were tucked in among the top 16 out of the 71 competitors. Add in the 26th-place performance by Katrina Salch (23:19.81) and it led to a winning day for the team.
“It was an impressive win,” said coach Thomas Beckum. “George Stevens was ranked five places ahead of us in the preseason rankings, but the core of our team did an outstanding job this summer getting in training and the team always sets the bar to do better than last year’s team and it’s been showing.”
Beckum said as the team’s front runner, Violette “is driven to be the best.” He said Wimmer is coming off an excellent track season and should keep improving as she adjusts to a new sport. Greenier’s leadership and Moir’s huge leap from last year make both key components.
Caribou returns to competition this Saturday for a meet in Presque Isle, which will be held beginning at 1 p.m. at the University of Maine at Presque Isle course.
