Several local cross country teams joined Mount Desert Island, John Bapst, Mattanawcook Academy and Orono in a meet held at Presque Isle Saturday.Corey Park of Presque Isle won the boys’ race, which featured 54 competitors, by edging out Caribou’s Spencer McElwain at the finish. Park’s winning time was 18 minutes and 36 seconds.
Alex Carter took ninth place in 20:02, Jason Johnson was 15th in 20:20, Brandon Hafford 17th in 20:51 and Matt Howe 23rd in 21:23 to help the Wildcats to a second-place finish in the meet.
Caribou totaled 33 points, with PI next with a score of 64. MDI was third with 73 and Mattanwcook fourth with 87.
The Presque Isle girls placed fourth with 60 points in the meet that saw a mere 17-point spread between the first- and fifth-place teams.
Alecia Palmer was the top Lady Wildcat runner, placing eighth in 23:16. Teammates Krista Buck (23:21) and Erin Thomas (23:28) were 11th and 12th, respectively. PI’s Hallie Bartlett also broke into the top-20 with a 24:48 clocking and Caroline Freeman was 28th at 26:40.
The race winner was MDI’s Heather Spurling, whose time was 21:39. John Bapst came in first in the team standings.
Last Wednesday in Caribou, the PI squads both placed second to the hosts in the meet which was held under the lights and featured only Aroostook County schools.
Park was the boys’ runner-up, finishing in 15:23, which was eight seconds behind McElwain. Carter, Johnson and Hafford were seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively.
Thomas was the first PI runner to cross the line in the girls race. She was seventh in 19:40. Four of the next five finishers were also Lady Wildcats, as Palmer was eighth, Buck ninth, Bartlett 10th and Jerica Fox 12th.
