CUMBERLAND, Maine — The Caribou cross country teams proved to be the best of the north at the state meet Saturday at Twin Brook Recreation Area.
The Viking girls placed third overall and the boys were fifth, as both squads led the way among the North division contenders at the Class B competition.
The Caribou girls, which had won the regionals the previous weekend in Belfast, finished a strong third out of 12 teams on Saturday. The Vikings scored 104 points, which trailed only the champion, Yarmouth, which posted 67, and second-place York, which came in with 85.
Coach Roy Alden’s Viking boys, tallied 154 points and led the way among teams from the North. Southern Maine schools Lincoln Academy, Freeport, Yarmouth and Wells captured the top four positions. Caribou was 24 points better than Hermon, the North region champ from the Oct. 21 meet.
In the girls’ race, Caribou sophomore Abigail Wimmer placed an impressive sixth out of 96 runners with a time of 20 minutes and 57.31 seconds on the five-kilometer course. With the effort, she earned first-team all-state honors.
Also for the Vikings, junior Ashley Violette took the 21st position overall in 21:42.75 and freshman Kacie Haney was 23rd in 21:50.48.
“Ashley had a solid end of the year performance and kept moving up throughout the race,” said Caribou coach Thomas Beckum, “and Kacie stepped up at the right time and ran a personal best.”
Junior Maren Moir was 29th in 22:01.31, also a personal best, while junior Emily Austin 33rd in 22:07.16 and senior Sarae Greenier 34th in 22:10.3. Sophomore Katrina Salch was the other Caribou runner participating and she ended up 53rd overall in 23:01.86.
“The girls finished the season in good fashion,” Beckum said. “They did a good job staying with each other and keeping each other in sight.”
The race winner was Freeport junior LIly Horne, who crossed the finish line in 19:10.85.
For the boys, Caribou featured three runners in the top 22 in the field of 110 competitors. Dylan Marrero, a junior, led the Vikes with a time of 17:30.23, good for ninth place. Senior Evan Desmond grabbed the 14th slot in 17:46.01 and junior Kyle Boucher was 22nd in 18:10.06.
“Dylan ran most of the race in the top five or six and just missed qualifying for the New Englands by eight to 10 seconds,” Alden said. “Evan ran extremely well and was in the top 10 for much of the race and Kyle showed tremendous drive and determination.”
Other Viking racers and their placement and time were senior Calvin Mokler, 61st in 19:17.14; freshman Malachai Willey, 73rd in 19:34.97; sophomore Ethan Holmquist, 87th in 19:51.87; and junior Aaron Macek, 88th in 19:53.21.
“It was fun to see the boys come back and compete with confidence and aggressiveness on a tough, hilly course,” Alden said. “Calvin and Malachai put together their best races of the season, finishing way ahead of many athletes who were ahead of them at the regionals.”
The first-place finisher was senior Luke Laverdiere of Yarmouth, who won by more than a minute over the nearest competitor with a time of 15:43.89.
Presque Isle also competed as a team and the girls placed 10th and the boys 11th.
Junior Madison Jandreau came in 14th in 21:30.14 and senior Isabelle Jackson was 30th in 22:02.61 to lead the Wildcats. Freshman Ellie Smith was the third PI runner to finish, running the course in 23:54.54 to finish 69th overall. Junior Taylor Ellis, senior Madelyn Wing, freshman Amanda Winslow and senior Ellie Goheen were the other racers for coach Carson Dobrin.
The Wildcat boys, under coach Evan Graves, were led by senior Max Bartley, who was 16th in 17:48.13. Senior Jonah Clark was second for the team and 42nd overall in 18:50.68; and junior Trace Cyr came in 66th in 19:22.55. Junior Owen McQuarrie placed 78th in 19:41.21, while senior Ian Hoyt-Franz, sophomore Michael Perkins and senior Alec Smith also competed.
