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The cross country regionals are set for this Saturday at Belfast, and local teams got in some preparation for the championship meet this past week.
The Caribou Viking boys had a particularly strong showing in the Penobscot Valley Conference Class B championships, held at Old Town Saturday. Coach Roy Alden’s squad won its fifth consecutive league title by featuring the top two finishers and five of the top 12.
“It was a great day and we ran extremely well,” said Alden. “The focus was there today.”
Caribou sophomore Dylan Marrero was the race winner on the 3.1-mile course in 17:55.9 and teammate Evan Desmond, a junior, was the runner-up in 18:00.1. Their Vikings easily captured the team title with 29 points, with John Bapst (82) and Ellsworth (84) following.
Alec Cyr was fourth in 18:07.5, Kyle Boucher 10th in 18:24.7 and Bryce Coffin 12th in 18:29.3 for the Vikes.
“Dylan and Evan ran with the leaders the entire race and Alec, Bryce and Kyle each had tremendous races, running 40 seconds to a minute faster than they had all season,” Alden added.
The Caribou girls turned in a second-place performance, totaling 74 points to finish only behind Mount Desert Island, which had 46. The Vikings beat out Ellsworth (86), John Bapst (92) and three other squads.
“The girls have had an outstanding season so far this year. We have the fastest top-seven girls in school history, but at the same time the depth of competition is at its best,” said Caribou coach Thomas Beckum.
The fastest Viking Saturday was freshman Katrina Salch, who was 10th in 21:39.6.
“Every meet we have had a different front runner and this week it was Katrina, who has been improving every meet,” Beckum said.
Right behind her was teammate Ashley Violette, a sophomore who crossed the finish line in 21:47.4 to take 11th. Sarae Greenier was 16th in 22:02.9 and the quartet of Madeline Gudde, Simone Michaud, Emily Austin and Emma Belyea finished in consecutive order in the 18th through 21st slots.
Michaud tripped over a rock midway through the race, otherwise her time and placement would have been much improved and the gap between the Vikes and the Trojans would have been much less, according to Beckum.
The race winner was MDI’s Tia Tardy, who covered the course in 18:58.8.
At Washburn last Wednesday, Aroostook County’s Class C teams gathered for the final regular season meet.
LCS/MSSM’s girls team, with a meet-low 34 points, and the Greater Houlton Christian Academy boys (40) came away with the team wins. The LCS/MSSM boys were second with 42 points. The Beaver teams each placed third, with the girls scoring 54 points and the boys 63.
The Eagles featured six runners in the top 11. Hannah Nelson was first for her team and fourth overall in 21:04, while Naomi Kihn was fifth in 21:17 and Allison Johnson sixth in 21:27. Bailey Chalmers was ninth (23:08), Sadie Allen 10th (23:19) and Charlotte McCulloh 11th (23:52).
Sophomore Kassie Farley paced the Washburn girls by placing third in 20:41 on the 2.8-mile course. Teammate Maggie Castonguay, a freshman, was eighth in 23:02. Mollie Clark was 12th in 24:04, followed by Samantha Churchill (15th, 25:10) and Samantha White (18th, 26:13).
Teagan Ewings of GHCA was the race winner in 19:46, six seconds ahead of teammate Bridget Hill.
The LCS/MSSM boys were led by James Cyr, who was second in 17:12 behind only race winner Wesley Ganglfinger of GHCA (16:38). David Govoni (18:36) and Sawyer LaChance (19:27) were fifth and sixth, respectively, for LCS/MSSM. Oliver Wainman was 12th in 20:03 and Karter Whitman 17th in 20:53 for the Limestone-based squad.
Washburn’s Devon Maynard came in third place in the boys’ meet with a 17:28 clocking. Also finishing among the top 10 was the Beavers’ Konner Jordan, who was ninth in 19:41. Four other Washburn runners competed, with Edwin McLaughlin 14th in 20:17, Brennan Viola 18th in 21:43, Cameron Hartford 19th in 23:14 and Caleb Thompson 24th in 26:03.
Caribou will be part of the Class B regional competition this coming Saturday at the Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast, with the boys racing at 11 a.m. and the girls at 11:35 a.m. Both Viking coaches are optimistic about turning in excellent efforts.
“As we look to [this weekend’s] meet, the same focus and sense of purpose must possess each of the seven young men that will be running,”Alden said. “We will need to continue to have the courage it takes to race with the top 15 runners in Eastern Maine.”
“The girls should keep dropping their times and place as we start to wind down for peak performances,” Beckum said. “We have an awesome five-girl gap of 30-40 seconds, give or take a few depending on the race, but we just need to be faster as a group to be competitive with the Class B schools in the regional and state meet.”
LCS/MSSM and Washburn will run in the Class C event, which begins with the boys’ race at 12:10 p.m., followed by the girls’ at 12:45 p.m.
