It is one of the largest high school running events, and Houlton and Greater Houlton Christian Academy runners were a part of the gathering last Saturday in Belfast.
The Festival of Champions drew 65 boys’ teams and 58 girls’ teams, which posted scores, but a total of 77 schools were represented by at least one runner, including Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Vermont and Rhode Island.
“It is an amazing event with some amazing efforts and times,” said Houlton coach Chris Rines.
A total of 727 girls and 870 boys ran in the event, which saw Houlton runners cutting time off to set their best personal records and the Houlton girls team coming in ahead of six other schools.
“The big news of the day was Olivia Winslow and Victoria Holmes absolutely crushed their personal bests,” said Rines. “Victoria by one minute and 44 seconds and Olivia by two minutes and 33 seconds.”
Winslow came in 396th with a time of 24:44.84, while Holmes was 464th with a time of 25:32.12.
Sophomore Rylee Warman set her season personal best finishing 122nd with a time of 21:52.07.
“Only Rylee and Isaiah raced in the seeded heats of the meet,” Rines explained. “Every one else was in the unseeded heat since we have no freshmen. Isaiah was only six seconds off of his career personal best of 18:07.”
Brown finished 128th with a time of 18:13.51.
“I think the energy of the meet kind of got to Noah and Adam, their first mile was well under six minutes and they never really recovered. However, they still were only seconds off of their personal best,” Rines said.
Holmes came in 418th in a time of 20:05.11 and Casillas was 542nd with 21:02.32.
Tre Whitney, along with Brown, took more than 30 seconds off their time to hit a new season low. Whitney was 658th and was clocked at 22:18.03.
Rounding out the Houlton team were Emma Hines and Emily Dickison. Hines was 469th with a time of 25:38.35 for a personal record, while Dickison was 551st, clocked at 27:00.81.
“Emily’s race was hampered by a nagging knee injury, we are going to focus on getting her back to full health in the next couple of weeks,” added Rines.
For GHCA, Alex Walker ran the freshman race and finished with a time of 23:42, while Rachel Potter ran in the unseeded meet in a time of 38:41.
Last Tuesday, the Houlton runners went to Mattanawcook Academy for a regular season meet.
“The kids had a fun race,” said Rines. “They said it was one of the better courses they have ran on all year.”
The course consisted on two laps around trails and athletic fields at Mattanawcook Academy.
“I had the kids treat this race as a tempo run like we would do in a practice,” said Rines. “The tempo workout would result in a couple of personal records and I think everyone learned a lot about pacing and controlling their limits.”
In the boys’ race there were 37 runners, 27 varsity and 10 junior varsity. Brown came in fifth with a personal best of 18:50.49, followed by Holmes, 16th, 20:39.98; Casillas, 20th, 21:54.09; and Whitney, 26th, 23:21.07.
“This was Isaiah’s first time of breaking the 19-minute mark,” Rines noted.
Brown’s pace figured out to be just over a six-minute mile.
In the girls’ race, there were 33 runners, 23 varsity and 10 junior varsity. Warman came in seventh with a time of 22:25.59; Holmes, 18th, 27:16.3 (season personal best); Winslow, 19th, 27:20.04 and Dickison, 20th, 27:23.81.
