Boys 6th, girls 7th at Class B state meet
BELFAST, Maine — Saturday was a special day for Caribou’s cross country teams as both the boys and girls came away with Class B Good Sportsmanship banners, presented by the Maine Principals’ Association.
“It demonstrates the respect that our program and our athletes have earned over the years as it is voted on by coaches throughout Eastern Maine,” said boys’ coach Roy Alden.
“It is an honor for our athletes to be recognized at the state level for their sportsmanship,” said Thomas Beckum, who coaches the girls. “We always instill the ideals of sportsmanship within our program.”
Earlier in the day, both Viking squads competed in the Class B state championship meets, held at the Troy Howard Middle School. They had qualified the previous weekend at the Eastern Maine regionals, also held in Belfast, as the boys placed first and girls were runners-up.
This time around, the Caribou boys again had the low score among EM squads, but five teams from Western Maine finished ahead of them. Caribou totaled 157 points and was better than nine other schools.
“We had a great day,” Alden said. “The kids were prepared and very focused and worked extremely hard, but the western Maine teams were extremely strong.
“The conditions were tough as our race was the last one of the day, but we ran the fastest we had all season,” he added.
Junior Elijah Verhoff was the fastest Viking, placing 27th in a field of 115 runners with a time of 17 minutes and 47.05 seconds on the 3.1-mile course. Next was another junior, Chathu Karunasiri, in 37th in 18:00.44. Caleb Hunter was 39th in 18:08.8, with Mitchell St. Peter 41st (18:11.53) and Daniel Randolph 42nd (18:11.89) following.
Lukas Lagasse (18:20.94) and Evan Desmond (18:44.64) also competed for the Vikings.
Beckum was also pleased with the performance of the girls’ team, which had 186 points and was the second best team in Eastern Maine.
“Most of our girls ran a personal best despite the rain and poor conditions of the course,” he said, noting the Vikings were just two points out of sixth. “We ran better this weekend than last week as three of our girls ran much faster [than at the regional].”
Caribou senior Robyn Larrabee was 26th overall in 21:06.13 and her twin sister, Nerissa, came in at 21:21.94, good for 32nd place of 107 racers. Madeline Gudde was 48th in 21:49.83 and Adessa Judd 50th in 21:58.82 for the Vikings.
Chelsea Haney (22:09.67), Lauren Chapman (22:13.16) and Emma Belyea (23:21.41) were the team’s other competitors.
The Greely girls of Cumberland and the Freeport boys were the team champs, while Katherine Leggat-Barr of Greely (19:17.12) and Mitch Morris of Cape Elizabeth (16:13.61) were the individual winners.
Both Alden and Beckum expressed their pride with what their teams accomplished this fall.
“They came together throughout the season and developed a level of toughness that allowed them to be competitive with the best teams in the state,” Alden said. “It is exciting to look forward to next season with only one senior (St. Peter, who the coach praised for his leadership) on this year’s team and having another strong junior varsity team.”
“I was fortunate to have a great group of girls to work with who believe in the process of becoming a better runner and believed in each other,” Beckum said.
The Washburn girls, who had qualified for the Class C state meet, came in ninth place out of 11 teams with 215 points. The Beavers were led by junior Emilia Churchill, who was 27th overall with a time of 22:00.18. Senior Mackenzie Worcester was 35th out of 91 runners, coming across the line in 22:19.58.
Next was Joan Overman (23:22.58), followed by Marianne Helton (23:47.19), Hannah Heald (26:04.18), Kristen Sarmiento (26:04.21) and Jessica Aube (28:05.59) to round out the list of Washburn runners.
For Limestone-MSSM, Allison Johnson came in 47th in 22:40.95, while teammate Ellyzabeth Bencivenga finished in 25:24.84.
Individuals from Washburn competing in the Class C boys’ state meet included junior Derek Baker, who finished 21st out of 90 in 18:08.32, and freshman Devon Maynard, who was 50th in 19:06.99.
The Orono girls and Merriconeag Waldorf School boys captured team titles. The individual champs were Hannah Steelman of Orono (19:16.99) and Matt Toussaint of Fort Kent (16:28.79).
