Greater Houlton Christian Academy runners will be competing Saturday in Belfast at the Eastern Maine regionals.
“I am excited to see what my runners are able to do on the Belfast course this weekend,” said GHCA coach Taylor Quint. “Alex and Rachel ran it a few weeks back at the Festival of Champions and Wes is looking forward to make his debut as he was out with an injury for the Festival. They are focused and have been committed to workouts in preparation for the race.”
All season, these three runners — Wesley Ganglfinger, Rachel Potter and Alex Walker — have competed with bigger schools and have shown improvement over the season.
At their last race in Fort Kent, Quint saw her runners maturing.
“All runners had a huge improvement on the Lonesome Pines course from their previous race earlier this year,” said Quint. “Wes ran a great mental race tackling the first mile, which is all uphill, with a great time split and proceeded to keep his second mile within two seconds.
“He was sitting in 10th with a little over half a mile left and he was able to overtake a runner to take ninth,” she added.
This freshman really has grown to know his strengths, according to his coach, and use them within a race as well as working hard to mentally stay in the second mile, which he struggled with early on in the season transitioning to the varsity 5K distance.
Freshman Alex Walker ran what Quint called a “gutsy race” considering the toughness of the course.
“He ran a great time and showed his competitive spirit,” Quint said. “He has been putting in solid workouts an has showed a lot of growth in his first year running. He is able to push himself to his threshold and fight from there which is great to see as a coach.”
Senior Rachel Potter has knocked off four minutes in time this season alone.
“She has really had a breakthrough in her racing mentality showing a boldness to push herself,” said Quint. “It has been fun to compare times and have the athletes see their hard work paying off.”
At the All-Aroostook League championships last Wednesday in Fort Kent, Rylee Warman, who transferred this year from GHCA to Houlton, claimed the All-Aroostook championship in the girls three-mile race with a time of 21:55.70.
In the boys race, Ganglfinger of GHCA was named All-Aroostook with a ninth-place finish in a time of 20:06.02.
The All-Aroostook male champion was Fort Kent’s Matthew Toussaint, 17:06.13; second, Derek Baker, Washburn, 18:03.38; third, Charles Parham, Fort Kent, 18:52.14; fourth, Isaiah Brown, Houlton, 18:54.55; fifth, Skyler Bernstein, Fort Kent, 19:11.49; sixth, Sam Ouellette, Fort Kent, 19:19.40; seventh, Jared Michaud, Fort Kent, 19:52.97; and eighth, Devon Maynard, Washburn, 20:05.41.
Rounding out the boy’s standings, 10th, Noah Holmes, Houlton, 20:26.01; 11th, Michael Ericson, Washburn, 20:35.02; 12th, Jason Webb, Limetone/MSSM, 22:15.03; 13th, Jackson Ashby, Fort Kent, 22:15.04; 14th, Adam Casillas, Houlton, 22:27.44; 15th, Peter Emidy, Limestone/MSSM, 22:29.06; 16th, Cameron Preston, Washburn, 22:43.12; 17th, Frederick Whitney, Houlton, 23:17.61; 18th, Ethan Butler, Washburn, 24:11.31; 19th, Walker, GHCA, 24:29.93; and 20th, Isaac Robichaud, Fort Kent, 26:04.25.
Twenty-one girls competed it the race, with runner-up Washburn’s Emilia Churchill, 22:35.74 and Fort Kent’s Jordan Tanguay was third with a time of 23:09.06.
Runners fourth through 15th are as follows: Joan Overman, Washburn, 23:59.11; fifth, Allison Johnson, Limestone/MSSM, 24:12.85; sixth, Paige Hebert, Fort Kent, 24:35.29; seventh, Marianne Helton, Washburn, 24:50.18; eighth, Ellyzabeth Bencivenga, Limestone/MSSM, 25:11.32; ninth, Naomi Kihn, Limestone/MSSM, 25:58.77; 10th, Kristin Sarmiento, Washburn, 26:23.20; 11th, Olivia Winslow, Houlton, 27:0912; 12th, Emma Hines, Houlton, 27:17.36; 13th, Eva Farkas, Limestone/MSSM, 27:31.08; 14th, Victoria Holmes, Houlton, 27:40.93; and 15th, Emily Dickison, Houlton, 28:40.80.
Capping off the girls race, Mikayla Churchill, Washburn, 30:44.04; Katie Easler, Washburn, 30:44.04; Robin Albert, Fort Kent, 31:28.00; Jessica Aube, Washburn, 31:50.43; Macey Barker, Washburn, 31:51.27; and Potter, GHCA, 40:26.73.
Fort Kent defeated Washburn in the boys team results, 19-38, while the Washburn girls held off Houlton, 31-24.
