By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
The Washburn girls’ cross country team showed they can compete with most other schools in the region, regardless of size, by placing second at the Ellsworth Invitational.
Mount Desert Island eased to the victory with 32 points and featured four competitors among the top 10 overall, but Washburn scored 83 to finish ahead of 10 other teams, most of them Class B programs.
“I was very happy to see how well we ran,” said Beaver coach Mike Waugh. “It’s one of the first big races of the year, and I think we turned some heads.”
Aleta Looker of the host Eagles was the overall winner in 19 minutes, 35.14 seconds, but Washburn senior Carsyn Koch took fifth in 20:39.09.
The Beavers’ next four scorers were within 11.15 seconds of each other as freshman Tori Koch was 17th in 22:18.59, junior Mackenzie Worcester 18th in 22:19.25, senior Carmen Bragg 21st in 22:23.86 and sophomore Emilia Churchill 22nd in 22:29.74.
The Larrabee twins led Caribou, with Robyn 23rd in 22:31.91 and Nerissa one spot and less than a second back in 22:32.5. The Vikings placed fifth in the meet with 153 points.
In the boys’ meet, the home team Eagles fashioned the first four runners across the finish line to dominate the field. Dan Curts won in 15:43.12, which was by a 1:22 margin of victory.
Caribou was fourth with 125 points, with senior Lucas Kinney placing seventh out of 90 runners in 17:50.61. Kyle Morris, a freshman, was 23rd in 18:48.69.
The Washburn boys were 10th with 261 points.
At Limestone last Wednesday, in a meet featuring Aroostook County’s Class C teams, Koch took the girls’ victory in the 5K in 20:51.44.
Eva Farkas of Limestone-MSSM was eighth in 24:34.14 and teammate Ellyzabeth Bencivenga 10th in 25:35.42.
Fort Kent won the boys’ meet. For Limestone-MSSM, William Popov was ninth in 21:52.26.
