By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
CARIBOU — Due to a scheduling conflict, the annual Presque Isle Invitational Cross Country Meet was actually held at Caribou High School Saturday afternoon.
Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg
Nerissa Larrabee of the Caribou Vikings tries to distance herself from MDI’s Olivia Erickson during Saturday’s meet at CHS.
The change in venue worked out just fine for the Mount Desert Island girls and the John Bapst boys, who rolled to team titles.
The Trojan girls showed the most dominance, with only County runners Carsyn Koch of Washburn and Nerissa Larrabee of Caribou preventing MDI from posting a perfect score.
MDI featured five of the top seven runners, with Maggie Painter leading the charge on the three-mile course with a time of 19:49. She was followed by teammates Isabel Erickson (20:11.2) and Waylon Henggeler (20:15.06).
Koch was next at 20:55.22 as she and Larrabee (21:43.03) sandwiched the Trojans’ fourth runner, Olivia Erickson. Caroline Driscoll of MDI placed seventh in 21:52.09 as the team’s final scorer.
Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg
Washburn Beaver cross country runners, from left, Mackenzie Worcester, Emilia Churchill and Carmen Bragg approach the one-mile mark of Saturday’s Presque Isle Invitational, held at Caribou High School. The trio helped Washburn place second in the nine-team competition, which included some larger schools from the Bangor area.
Washburn placed second in the nine-team meet with 71 points. Tori Koch placed 11th in 22:12.92, Carmen Bragg 15th in 22:29.78, Mackenzie Worcester 22nd in 23:02.21 and Emilia Churchill 23rd in 23:05.61.
Fourth-place Caribou, with 98, received a 12th-place performance from Robyn Larrabee (22:16.41), while Emma Belyea was 26th in 23:47.46, Chelsea Haney 28th in 24:05.55 and Lauren Chapman 30th in 24:12.9.
Leading Limestone-MSSM was Ellyzabeth Bencivenga, who was 34th overall in 25:01.79. Teammate Saxian Wu was one place behind and finished in 25:17.6.
In the boys’ meet, John Bapst posted 37 points and bested MDI for the top spot. Caribou was third with 82 and PI a point back with 83. Washburn had 179 points to tie for seventh.
The meet winner was Matthew Touissaint of Fort Kent, who crossed the finish line in 17:28.03. Connor Wagner of Bapst was the runner-up in 17:52.75, who just beat out Caribou’s Lucas Kinney, whose time was 17:56.24.
The victorious Crusaders also fashioned the sixth, seventh, 10th and 12th-place finishers to guarantee the top spot.
Complementing Kinney’s effort for Caribou was the trio of Tyler Strid (19:19.77), Kyle Morris (19:21.58) and Tsion MacLeod (19:22.92), who were within four seconds of each other and were 17th, 18th and 19th, respectively. The Vikes’ other scorer was Caleb Willett, who took 25th in 19:59.01.
Derek Baker’s 21st-place perfomance led Washburn. He had a time of 19:43.11. Cameron Preston (35th, 20:46.22), Alex Pelletier (38th, 21:10.35), Kenny Irving (42nd, 21:32.13) and Michael Ericson (45th, 21:36.79) were the other Beaver scorers.
William Popov was 48th and paced Limestone-MSSM. His time was 22:17.67. Travis Hatfield of the Eagles was 55th in 25:16.22.
Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg
Viking runners, from left, Tyler Strid, Caleb Willett (38), Elijah Verhoff (37) and Caleb Hunter (24) start off Saturday’s cross country race in Caribou in a tight pack. The Vikings ended up in third place out of eight teams.
In the boys’ JV meet, Keith Draper (19:57.96), Gabe Massey (20:10.71) and Lukas Lagasse (20:19.29) made up the overall top three and led the Vikes to the win. Presque Isle’s Austin Albert was sixth in 20:54.52.
Allisa Irving of Caribou was eighth overall in the girls’ JV meet in 25:32.47.
The All-Aroostook Selection Meet is next and will be held Friday at Caribou High School beginning at 4 p.m. Teams from throughout The County will take part, vying for all-league consideration.
