By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
BELFAST — Cross country was not even an activity offered at Washburn District High School from 2003 through 2009.
Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg
Washburn junior Carmen Bragg (819) comes around the corner midway through Saturday’s race in the Class C state cross country championships. Bragg finished ninth and helped the Beavers win the team title.
Now, the school can boast its first-ever team state championship in a girls’ sport outside of basketball following Saturday’s victory in the Class C state meet, which was held at Troy Howard Middle School.
“Obviously I couldn’t be more pleased, only being in the third year of the program and at state champion level,” said Mike Waugh, who has coached the team since the sport was revived in the fall of 2010. “It’s pretty remarkable. We have an extraordinarily gifted group of girls who have worked hard for everything they have right now.”
Leading the way was junior Carsyn Koch, who placed first in the state meet for the third consecutive year. Koch had a time of 19 minutes and 30.56 seconds on the 3.1-mile course, which turned out to be almost a full minute faster than runner-up Lily Koffman of Orono.
“She is a solid, tough runner in every race,” said Orono coach Linwood White of Koch. “She runs it from the start and it doesn’t matter who the competition is. She doesn’t back down.
“She’s a fun athlete to watch.”
The Beavers also placed two other runners in the top 10 as sophomore Mackenzie Worcester placed sixth in 21:06.42 and junior Carmen Bragg was ninth in 21:13.88.
“I could really start to feel it in my legs at the end,” said Bragg, who had run in the Eastern Maine meet and played in two playoff soccer games during the previous week, “but I really wanted to make top 10 and knew I was right there.”
Emilia Churchill, a freshman, came in 14th in 21:52.9 and Waugh said “that sealed [the team victory] for us.”
Washburn totalled 58 points to finish ahead of second-place Orono, which posted 82. Waynflete was a close third with 83 and last year’s state champions, Merriconeag Waldorf of Freeport, was fourth with 84.
The Caribou teams competed in the Class B competition after qualifying the previous weekend at the regional.
The Viking girls ended up in seventh place with 165 points and senior MacKenzie Belyea, who was fourth in Eastern Maine, placed 18th in 20:39.84. Sophomore Robyn Larrabee was 20th in 20:44.4 and twin sister Nerissa placed 29th in 21:23.99.
“The girls had poured their hearts out during the second half of the season and you only have so many great races for peak performance,” said Caribou coach Thomas Beckum. “We just had too many great races prior to the state meet.”
The Caribou boys, who were runners-up in the regional, fell to eighth place at the state meet.
“We certainly did not have our best day when it mattered the most,” coach Roy Alden said. “The boys ran extremely well the first mile and a half of the race, but fell apart during the second half.”
Senior Ron Lund came in 16th place overall with a time of 17:31.96 to close out an outstanding four-year career with the Vikes.
“I envisioned being in the top 10, but it didn’t happen … it was just one of those days,” Lund said.
Sophomore Brendan Cyr was 35th in 18:04.22 and junior Ryan Washington 46th in 18:22.72 to add to the Caribou effort.
Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg
Caribou senior Ron Lund placed 16th in Saturday’s Class B state championship race.
