Washburn’s Koch
takes XC state championship
By Kevin Sjoberg
BELFAST – 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.”
Merriconeag-Waldorf High School took the girls’ team title and Waynflete was the runner-up. 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.”
In the Class B meet held earlier in the day, the Wildcat teams both logged 13th-place finishes after having qualified at the previous week’s regional.
Alecia Palmer took seventh place in 20:00.2 to pace the PI girls. Emily Wright was 63rd in 22:04.2, Jaylee Fox 71st in 22:18.8 and Shelby Condon 81st in 22:42.98. Amanda Bennett and Bonnie Corey were the Wildcats’ other competitors.
John Bapst took the girls’ team title with a meet-low 72 points.
For the boys, Matt Eager came in 25th in 17:31.55 and Logan Thibeau was 62nd in 18:22.41. Saul Nunez took 81st in 18:59, while Michael Donovan, Trevor Levesque, Matt Tilley and Tyler Michaud rounded out the list of Wildcat racers.
The Caribou Vikings captured the team championship, their first since 1938. They also became the first cross country team from an Eastern Maine school, regardless of class, to win a state title since 1998.
By finishing among the top 25 overall among the Class A, B and C runners, Koch and Palmer both earned the right to compete in the New England Championships in Thetford, Vt. Nov. 13.
Contributed photo
ON THE MOVE – Washburn’s Carsyn Koch keeps ahead of Waynflete’s Matha Veroneau and Foxcroft Academy’s Chelsie Oldfield during the early stages of Saturday’s state meet. Koch won in 19:36.5.
Contributed photo/Laurie Sheehan
DUELING EMILYS — PI’s Emily Wright, left, and Falmouth’s Emily Rand stay close to one another during Saturday’s Class B state meet in Belfast. Wright finished 63rd overall in 22:04.2.
