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| Contributed photo/Christiane Washington Ryan Washington of Caribou, a member of the Maine Winter Sports Center racing team, turned in an 13th-place overall finish at the Sassi Memorial 5K held in Rumford Jan. 26. |
RUMFORD — The Sassi Memorial 5K at Black Mountain is the biggest high school race in Maine, and serves as the qualifier for the New England J2 Championships. The Jan. 26 race at Black Mountain could not have been more perfect. The snow was cold, making it easy to wax skis for the race, and the five-kilometer course was perfectly groomed and included the infamous high school hill.
The Maine Winter Sports Center organized a trip with 27 high school skiers from all over Aroostook County, and it was quite impressive to see so many of the athletes on the podium. In addition, many of the skiers made the top 20 in the J2 category (ages 14-15) to qualify for Maine at the J2 Festival in March.
In overall results, Katahdin’s Hannah Streinz was in second place in 17:41 with sister and fellow teammate Lydia Streinz in fourth in 17:43.2. Caribou’s Sarah Doak was fifth in 17:48.3 and her teammate Ashley Richards was 13th in 18:23.
Presque Isle skiers Bonnie Corey finished 80th place in 22:12, and Danielle Allen in 95th in 22:47 out of 215 skiers.
In the J2 girls category Caribou’s Anna Soderberg was in seventh place, Fort Kent’s Gentle Prescott in 13th and Caribou teammates Lauren Chapman and Kaitlin Ring in 31st and 47th, respectively.
In the boys’ overall standings, Katahdin’s Daniel Streinz was second in 14:27.4 and Fort Fairfield’s Lance McKenney was third in 14:38.6. Fort Kent’s Kamran Husain took eighth place in 14:58, Ryan Washington of the Maine Winter Sports Center was in 13th place in 15:09, Brendan Cyr from Caribou was 16th in 15:32 and Presque Isle’s Jon Rochester took 23rd in 16:11.
Caribou’s Keith Draper was 37th and teammate Ronald Lund was 68th out of 237 skiers.
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| Contributed photo/Christiane Washington Sarah Doak of Caribou placed fifth overall at the Sassi Memorial 5K ski race, held in Rumford Jan. 26. Aroostook County youth had strong performances in the event. |
Sweeping the top four places in the J2 boys category from the County were Streinz, McKenney, Husain and Cyr. Fort Kent’s Cody Johnson was in 14th, Presque Isle’s Jason Bartley in 15th, Caleb Willett from Caribou in 17th and Noah Rossignol from Presque in 19th.
Ashland’s Malcolm Milligan took 22nd, Presque Isle’s Gannon Therrien was in 24th, Caribou’s Riley McDuffie placed 27th and Elijah Verhoff finished in 54th.
