CARIBOU, Maine — Evan Desmond’s selection as the Aroostook Musterds Runner of the Year highlighted the club’s Dec. 16 awards banquet, which was held at the Par and Grill Restaurant.
Desmond had his name added to the Sam Ouellet Memorial Trophy. A Caribou High School senior, Desmond’s final varsity cross country season saw him run at the front of the Vikings’ pack, finishing second overall at the Penobscot Valley Conference Class B championships, seventh at the Northern Maine Regionals and 14th at the state championships.
Ouellet, the trophy’s namesake, was considered Maine’s original ironman. He was a ground-breaking athlete who participated in running, cycling, skiing, skating and canoe races at distances ranging from today’s typical shorter races to three or four day events of 300 miles or more. He operated a ski touring center in Ashland until his death in the late 1980s.
“[Desmond] improved his time by three seconds from the regionals to the states, which is remarkable given that the state meet course [at Twin Brook in Cumberland] was a more technical and difficult course than the one run the previous week in Belfast,” said Musterds President Christopher Smith.
Chris Rines of Houlton captured his first overall series championship, having earned 48 points for the seven races he ran. Rines finished just five points ahead of runner-up Evan Graves of Caribou.
For the women, Marie Beckum of Caribou was the series winner with 80 points, outdistancing second-place finisher Angela Ewings of Houlton by a margin of 43 points. It was Beckum’s third series title, with her previous two coming in 2009 and 2012.
The County Challenge Series consisted of nine races in 2017: the Wild Katahdin Snow Run in Houlton; the UMPI Spring Runoff 5K in Presque Isle; the S.W. Collins Company 5K in Caribou; the Musterd Mile in Caribou; the Potato Blossom 5-Miler in Fort Fairfield; the UMFK 5K Fun Run in Fort Kent; the Caribou Labor Day 8K; the Caribou Marathon, Half and Relay; and the Caribou Turkey Trot 5K.
Runners received recognition for participating in a minimum five of the nine series races. Katie Malone, Teagan Ewings, George J. Ferland, Graves and Desmond competed in five; Brent Bailey, Craig Reese and Steven Desmond in six; George H. Ferland, Thomas Beckum and Rines in seven; Ed Malone in eight and Marie Beckum in all nine.
Age group winners have to compete in a minimum of five races. This year’s first-place winners are: 14 and under female, Teagan Ewings, 53 points; 15-18 male, Evan Desmond, 50; 19-29 male, Rines, 72; 30-39 female, Marie Beckum, 84; 30-39 male, Graves, 51; 40-49 female, Angela Ewings, 66; 40-49 male, Thomas Beckum, 73; 50-59 male, Reese, 57; and 60-69 male, Ed Malone, 86.
The 36th annual County Challenge Series begins with the Wild Katahdin Snow Run, set for early February 2018 in Houlton. The full series schedule for the upcoming year will be released in late January.
