BELFAST, Maine – The town of Washburn is renowned for collecting multiple state championships in basketball during the 1980s. Now the community can boast an individual who is the best in Maine in the sport of cross country running.
Carsyn Koch, a freshman, captured the title Saturday in the Class C state meet by crossing the finish line on the 3.1-mile course in 19 minutes, 36.5 seconds.
“It was really nothing short of spectacular,” said her coach, Mike Waugh, of the performance. “She got out well, took the lead and on the long, gradual uphill about a third into the race, and then started to put the distance on. It was her race from there.”
“I had a hard first mile because I wanted to get a relatively good distance away from the rest of them,” Koch said, “and then I sort of settled into my regular pace after that.”
Just like she did at the Eastern Maine Championships a week earlier, also on the Belfast course, Koch dominated the field. She won by 1:12.43 over the second-place finisher, Martha Veroneau of Waynflete.
At the regionals, she had a 1:16.74 margin over runner-up Chelsie Oldfield of Foxcroft Academy, who actually dropped to 28th at the state event..
Her state meet time was especially impressive as she took 38 seconds off her result at the EM competition. This happened despite traveling down late the night before after her Washburn soccer team had played in an EM semifinal the previous afternoon in Presque Isle.
“I was worried I was going to burn my legs out [in the soccer game] because it’s easy to do when you’re a halfback. I alternate between different positions, so I don’t know if I’m going to be doing a lot of running in the game or not a lot of running,” she said. “At the race, I had a lot of adrenaline, so I couldn’t really tell if I was tired.”
Carmen Bragg, her classmate and teammate both on the soccer field and with the cross country team, placed third overall for the second consecutive week. She logged a time of 20:53.97 – 44 seconds faster than the previous week.
“I was thinking going in that she had a chance at the top five,” Waugh said. “She looked good the first half of the race and when I saw her later she still looked fresh. She ran a smart race and started picking people off one by one and using them to motivate her to go faster and close the gap.”
Washburn did not compile a team score as Koch and Bragg were the lone competitors in the state meet, but Waugh thinks that will change in future years.
“Their friends are already talking about running next year,” he said. “I think that is eventually going to lead to some team banners.”
By winning the meet, Koch earned the right to compete in the New England Championships in Thetford, Vt. Nov. 13.
