HOULTON, Maine — High school runners bolted to their first meet of the cross-country season Tuesday afternoon as Houlton Middle-High School hosted a relay style event.
Featuring a co-ed, boys and girls races, runners from Madawaska, Fort Kent, Washburn, and the Maine School of Science and Mathematics joined hosts Houlton and Greater Houlton Christian Academy for the event.
The relay races saw two runners partnering with each completing a 1.5-mile relay. Three runners chose to run as individuals, completing the full three-mile race themselves.
“The relay format is an excellent way to start off the season,” Houlton coach Chris Rines said. “For many teams that attend, it is their first meet and those teams tend to have lots of new runners as well. By splitting up the 5k distance between two runners it is a perfect way to introduce new runners to the sport, let them dip their feet in the competitive waters, and hopefully get hooked on the sport so when they do get up to the full 5k length they can avoid any possible frustrations.”
He added there also was some value for coaches to evaluate their runners by using this type of format.
“It also gives us coaches an opportunity to have at least one meet where our full efforts are reflected in the team scores,” he said. “Several of our smaller Aroostook league schools tap their coaches to lead both the boys and girls team of their school and the relay format dictates one school score. For teams that have incomplete boys or girls teams, it does offer the chance for these kids to score at least one time in the varsity season. It’s also a little bit of a chess match for the coaches too, so that’s an extra bit of fun for us too.”
MSSM finished in first place with 35 total points (combining boys, girls and coed results). Washburn placed second with 26 points, followed by Houlton, 18; GHCA, 14; Madawaska, six; and Fort Kent, three.
GHCA’s Cole Winslow was the first finisher in the individual race, completing the wooded course in nine minutes, 59 seconds. Jacob Daigle of Madawaska was second at 11:02, while Bowdoin Tate of Washburn was third at 11:36.
Results, broken down by school, are as follows:
GHCA — (coed), 1, Teagan Ewings/Isaac Potter, 21:07; (boys), 4, Jeremy Stone/Joel Carmichael, 19:53; and 14, Austin Winslow/Parker Brewer, 25:54.
Houlton — (coed), 2, Makenna Cooley/Daniel Ross, 21:31; 9, Lauren Swimm/Brandon Roshto, 26:45; and 11, Jayden Swimm/Nolan Jacobs, 32:31; (boys), 8, Ean Bolstridge/Donald Ouellette, 22:22; (girls), 2, Emmalyne Drake/Jannelle Ross, 24:19; and 6, Aliya Sabattis-Webber/Ellie Grant, 26:50.
Washburn — (coed), 3, Madison Miller/Jovanni Taveras), 22:04; 5, Jacob Maynard/Kassie Farley, 23:44: 8, Emma Johnson/Colby Hewitt, 25:42; 10, Raegyn Chavez/Gavin Dunagan, 29:05; (boys), 2, Patrick Saucier/Aidan Churchill, 19:12; 6, Noah White/Dylan Henry, 21:41; 7, Steven Nader/Jaden Alvira, 22:01; 9, Beckham Vaughn/Shawn Helton, 22:23; (girls), 4, Tru Drost/Amanda White, 25:47; 9, Rachel Kelly/Emerson Turner, 32:35.
MSSM — (coed) 6, Sadie Hartt/Logan Madden, 25:17; 7, Rothery Sullivan/Harrison Ma, 25:18; (boys), 1, Jay Philbrick/Alexy Kovalenko, 19:00; 5, Sawyer LaChance/George Johnson, 19:55; 10, Max Akom/Michael Delorge, 22:50; (girls), 1, Dolcie Tanguay/Madison McCarthy, 20:31; 3, Charlotte McCulloh/Brice Carson, 25:36; 7, Jialen Deal/Annette Mubang, 28:03.
Fort Kent — (coed) 4, Breanna Beaulieu/Patrick Parnham (Wisdom), 22:42; (boys) 11, Mark Robichaud/Kevin Bonenfant, 23:02; 15, Cole Bennett/Ian Albert, 26:21; (girls) 5, Mya Eno/Emma Landry, 26:10; 8, Alexis Fournier/Kennedy Ashby, 30:16.
Madawaska — (boys) 3, Matthew Cyr/Shayki Kuptchik, 19:51; 12, Evan Dionne/Maddix Corriveau, 23:32; 13, Jacob Vereneau/Lance Corbin, 25:41.
(Photos by Joseph Cyr)
