CARIBOU, Maine — A cross country meet at Caribou High School on Saturday featured a unique format and another stellar performance by Viking runners.
The No. 1 runners from all the teams competed against each other in a race held on the five-kilometer course, followed by the No. 2s and No. 3s, all the way down to the No. 7s.
The talented Orono Red Riots made the trip north and turned in dominating efforts. The Orono girls took first in six of the seven races to accumulate 51 points and the Orono boys claimed victories in five of the seven en route to a 61-point total.
Caribou came in second for both girls and boys, scoring 92 in the girls’ meet and 102 in the boys’ meet.
Also competing were Penobscot Valley Conference teams John Bapst, Old Town, Ellsworth, Presque Isle, Foxcroft Academy and Hermon, along with Class C County programs Washburn, Fort Kent, Houlton, Hodgdon, GHCA and Katahdin.
Viking girls’ results were as follows: No. 1, Ashley Violette, seventh place, 20:09.32; No. 2, Madeline Gudde, fifth, 21:08.03; No. 3, Sarae Greenier, second, 20:51.15; No. 4, Emily Austin, second, 20:51.47; No. 5, Katrina Salch, first, 20:49.8; No. 6, Emma Belyea, second, 21:56.46; and No. 7, Maren Moir, second, 22:35.24.
Caribou girls’ coach Thomas Beckum said although his team has not been at full strength in any of the first three meets, the Vikes have turned in some outstanding races. On Saturday, the team was without Simone Michaud, but many of her teammates came through.
“Ashley, Katrina, Sarae and Emily stepped up and had amazing races,” Beckum said. “What’s nice is the girls keep pushing to fill the empty spots on the team and the order keeps changing.
“We have some talented freshman this season that will keep improving as the season goes on and we also have some seasoned runners who know how to push themselves to get us to the next level,” he added.
In the boys’ meet, the results were: No. 1, Dylan Marrero, second, 16:17.21; No. 2, Evan Desmond, first, 16:11.44; No. 3, Alec Cyr, third, 16:49.26; No. 4, Bryce Coffin, fourth, 18:57.17; No. 5, Kyle Boucher, second, 17:17.98; No. 6, Aaron Macek, fourth, 18:38.42; and No. 7, Calvin Mokler, second, 18:46.99.
The boys were also without one of their starters, Nic Alfaro, who missed due to a foot injury, while Coffin was not at full strength. Still, like with the girls’ team, others were able to pick up the slack.
“Evan ran extremely well to have the second fastest time of the day and Kyle is growing into a varsity runner as he was only a little over a minute behind the times posted by Evan and Dylan,” said Roy Alden, coach of the boys’ team.
