EM victory is Alden’s fifth in 21-year career
by Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
BELFAST – Saturday’s meet didn’t go quite as planned for coach Roy Alden and his Caribou boys cross country team, but the overall strength of the top seven runners was still enough to give his team its third consecutive Eastern Maine Class B championship.
Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg
Kjetil Rossignol of the Caribou cross country team, right, looks to overtake a John Bapst runner during the midway portion of Saturday’s Eastern Maine championship meet held in Belfast. Rossignol finished among the top 30 runners and helped the Vikings to their third consecutive regional title.
In the five-kilometer race held at the Troy Howard Middle School amid sunny yet windy conditions, the Vikings posted a score of 52 points to finish just ahead of Hampden Academy (63) for top honors. Ellsworth was third with 84, followed by Winslow, Erskine Academy of South China, John Bapst of Bangor and Presque Isle – all who qualified for next Saturday’s state meet, also set to take place in Belfast.
Alden and his team members felt 45 was going to be the score needed to grab the title. The Vikes fell seven points short, but still had enough depth to get the job done.
“Coach told us that we just needed to run our race,” said senior Jake Michaud. “As long as we stayed mixed up with the Hampden and Ellsworth runners and not let any of them get too far ahead, we were going to be able to come away with the victory.”
Viking senior and usual team frontrunner Christian Sleeper fell a few spots lower than expected, ending up seventh overall in 17:24.16, but he was part of a Caribou contingent that placed four runners in the top 12, five in the top 17 and all seven in the top 30 to give them the win.
Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg
Freshman Ryan Washington registered a top-10 performance to lead Caribou to the win in Saturday’s EM meet.
D.J. Flynn, another senior, finished sixth in 17:21.57, but the big surprise of the day was the performance turned in by freshman Ryan Washington, who is normally the team’s fifth runner but on Saturday was third for the Vikes and 10th overall in 17:27.65.
“A freshman coming into varsity has a good deal of pressure on him,” Michaud said. “Today he had a great race. That was a really good motivator both for him and for our team.”
Washington, who had raced well at the Festival of Champions race held on the same course a few weeks earlier, said he rose above his own expectations in this one.
“I pictured myself in the top 15 or 20, so this is a lot better,” he said. “I pushed as hard as I could the whole race.”
Junior Caleb Chapman, running in his first-ever EM championship race, was a solid 12th in 17:39.14, while classmate Jesse Sandstrom took 17th in 18:03.31. Even the team’s sixth and seventh runners had strong efforts, with Michaud coming in 26th in 18:30.99 and Kjetil Rossignol 30th in 18:36.02. A total of 105 runners were registered for the meet.
“Overall they ran really well,” Alden said. “The distance between them was very, very close and Kjetil and Jake both being ahead of Hampden’s fifth runner turned out to be huge too.
“That’s all part of what it means to be a team. They have to work together and come through for each other and know that they are doing it for the sake of the team and not for any one individual.”
Ellsworth freshman Dan Curtis was the race winner in 16:26.45. Erskine Academy runner Eben Hodgkins was the runner-up in 16:45.69. The Broncos of Hampden featured the third and fifth-place overall finishers in Evan Piccirillo and Ethan Burke, but Caribou’s depth proved too much to overcome.
Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg
Vikings Jesse Sandstrom (256) and D.J. Flynn (251) stay ahead of a Hampden runner at Saturday’s meet.
Alden said this year’s championship did not come easily, but was still very rewarding.
“[Winning a title] is a lot harder than most people realize,” Alden said, “but these kids work unbelievably hard. Most of them started preparing in June and some have logged 800 to 900 miles since that time.”
Michaud said capping his running career with a third regional crown was “a great feeling.”
“Winning the first two were great, but to do it three years in a row is kind of euphoric,” he said.
The Caribou girls also had a day to be proud of. The Vikes finished in third place in the team rankings and all seven of the team’s runners established personal-best times in the process.
“It is difficult to single out one runner as most important as they all stepped it up a notch and ran their best races of the season when it mattered most,” said coach Tom Beckum.
“It’s something very special when you have everybody run their personal best.”
Sophomore Mackenzie Belyea shaved 24 seconds off her previous fastest mark to place 11th in 20:31. Mary Jo Sheehan was 18th in 21:04.84 and Dayna Michaud 27th in 21:54.35, which were times 10 and 14 seconds, respectively, faster than their previous bests.
Katelyn Plourde (28th, 21:54.76), Ashley Richards (37th, 22:10.35) and Kelly Kashian (42nd, 22:35.05) also had fine showings. Natasha Bishop, Caribou’s No. 7 runner, finished close to the top half of the field by taking 53rd out of 95 competitors in 22:56.21.
“You couldn’t ask for anything more than the performance turned in by the girls,” Beckum added. “The difference was the attitude and focus that they brought to the [starting] line.”
John Bapst won the team championship with 72 points and Mount Desert Island was second with 80. Caribou posted 117, ahead of Hampden Academy (129), Winslow (161), Medomak Valley of Waldoboro (166) and Presque Isle (188). All of these teams qualified for the state meet, with seven other squads also participating in Saturday’s race.
Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg
Dayna Michaud (404) and Natasha Bishop (402) of the Vikings stay close in the early stages of Saturday’s regional cross country meet, which took place at Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast. Caribou placed third in the event.
The individual winner was Old Town’s Dacie Manion, whose winning time was 19:03.64. Presque Isle’s Alecia Palmer took second in 19:23.42.
Alden is excited about his team’s prospects in this weekend’s meet. The state title is the only one that has eluded Alden in his 21 years as coach.
“If all five of our scorers can run just five seconds faster and keep the same spread, that could be a real key in a race like that,” Alden said. “They’ve learned a lot about themselves and how to push the challenges and hopefully they can take it to one more level.”
Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg
Caribou’s D.J. Flynn (251), Caleb Chapman (249) and Jesse Sandstrom were part of a group of 105 runners participating in Saturday’s EM championship cross country meet. All three finished among the top 20 as Caribou came away with the victory.
Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg
Caribou runners Katie Plourde (406) and Ashley Richards (407) both established personal-best times at Saturday’s regional meet held in Belfast.
