CARIBOU, Maine — One of the more unique cross country races in the state took place Friday as Aroostook County squads congregated for an “under the lights” event at Caribou High School.
“The biannual Under the Lights Cross Country race hosted by Caribou High School went off without a hitch,” said Houlton XC coach Chris Rines. “The Aroostook County League race combined both boys and girls and varsity and jv into one mass start which made for some quick times in a great atmosphere.”
The highlight of the night came from the battle for first place between Caribou’s Chatu Karunasiri and Houlton’s Isaiah Brown.
“After a pack of front runners had eventually petered out about a mile in the two found themselves in the lead,” Rines said. “It came down to the last hill of the course, about a tenth of a mile from the finish before Karunasiri pulled away from Brown finishing just three seconds ahead of him.”
Other highlights came from Adam Casillas, running his season best pace per mile to finish in the top 15; Rylee Warman again putting up a strong performance taking sixth place; Kate Newman dropping another huge chunk of time off of her pace per mile; and Olivia Winslow running a career personal best, the coach said.
The hosts featured the fastest individual in both the girls’ and boys’ races and also captured the team titles. Winning the girls’ 2.9-mile competition, which included 47 runners, was Caribou’s Julia Page with a time of 20 minutes and 2.63 seconds.
Caribou was the champion with a low score of 29, thanks to five runners among the top 12 overall. The Wildcats took second with 57 points and Washburn was third with 83. Limestone-MSSM (90) and Houlton (104) followed.
Warman of Houlton came in sixth overall in 20:49.58 (7:10 per mile pace time) to lead her squad. Other Shire runners results, with pace per mile time included in parentheses, were: 16, Olivia Winslow, 22:08 (7:37); 25, Taylor Reed, 23:42 (8:10); 40, Victoria Holmes, 27:52 (9:36); and 47, Kate Newman 34:59 (12:03).
In the boys’ race, which used the same 2.9-mile course, Caribou’s Chathu Karunasiri topped the field of 56 runners with a time of 16:08.5. Brown took the runner-up position in 16:11.26. Caleb Hunter of the Vikings was third in 16:39.53, Derek Baker of Washburn grabbed the fourth spot in 16:48.95 and Tsion MacLeod of Caribou placed fifth in 16:55.68.
Other Houlton results were: 15, Casillas, 18:38 (6:25); and 45, Tim Glatter 22:53 (7:53)
Wesley Ganglfinger of Greater Houlton Christian Academy finished ninth,with a time of 17:39.28, followed by 16, Cole Winslow, 18:40.10; 41, Alex Walker, 22:32.74; 42, Isaac Potter, 22:32.80; and 48, Joshua Supper, 28:28.81.
Boys team scores were: Caribou 18, Washburn 75, Fort Kent 77, GHCA 113, PI 115, Limestone 127. Houlton did not have enough runners to score as a team.
Staff writer Kevin Sjoberg contributed to this article.
