Taylor and Beckum are fastest in obstacle challenge
MARS HILL, Maine — Another Mars Hill Mountain Challenge has been completed and a Westfield man has picked up the overall title.
Thirty-year old Kyle Taylor finished the adventure obstacle race, held Saturday at Bigrock Ski Area, in 38 minutes and 46 seconds.
The women’s champion was Marie Beckum of Caribou, who clocked the five-kilometer course in 44:41.
Age division winners were, for men, Bryce Coffin of Stockholm (41:13), 29 and under; Taylor, 30-39; and Bruce Clark of Houlton (40:05), 40 and over.
For the women, Jordan Tanguay of Fort Kent (44:58) prevailed in the 29 and under category, Beckum for 30-39 year-olds and Tammy Delisle of Wallagrass (53:59) for the 40 and over group.
The overall top 10 included: first, Taylor; second, Clark; third, Coffin; fourth, Aaron Smith of Springfield (41:58); fifth, Andre Anderson of Fort Fairfield (43:49); sixth, Skyler Bernstein of Fort Kent (44:12); seventh, Beckum; eighth, Tanguay; ninth, Rob Langner of Fort Fairfield (45:17) and 10th, Jason Johnson of Mapleton (45:46).
In the team competition, the Muddy Buddies, made up of Michael and Karen Weston and Amanda and Garrett Cushman, all of Mars Hill, took the top spot. NMCC was second and the Honey Badgers placed third.
The Kids Challenge was held in the afternoon and Ethan Cushman and Maggie Mahan, both of Mars Hill, were the overall champs.
The challenge featured the alpine terrain of Bigrock with a variety of natural and man-made obstacles on a course with plenty of elevation gain. Waves of participants throughout the morning went out every 20 minutes, beginning at 9 a.m., and well over 100 took part in the third annual event.
