By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
Caribou used a meet held in Hermon Friday for its final tuneup for this weekend’s Penobscot Valley Conference cross country championship meet, also to be held at the same venue.
Meanwhile, Washburn hosted its own meet last Wednesday, which included the other Aroostook County XC squads. Those same teams will gather again this afternoon in Houlton for the Aroostook League Championships, which are hosted by Greater Houlton Christian Academy. At Friday’s Pendale Invitational, the Caribou girls registered a second-place finish, while Presque Isle was fifth out of the six schools competing. Hampden came away with the meet title by placing four runners in the top 10.
Chelsea Haney led the Vikings by coming in fifth place on the three-mile course in 21 minutes and 41.05 seconds. Teammate Robyn Larrabee was seventh in 22:10.91 and Kristin Macek 11th in 22:53.09.
Freshman Tia Tardy of Mattanawcook set the pace and won with a time of 20:42.68.
Caribou was fourth in the boys’ competition. Hampden earned the victory by tucking four runners into the top 10.
Caribou’s Lucas Kinney was fourth in 18:14.63. Tsion McLeod was the next fastest Viking runner at 18:58.95, good for 17th place.
The race champion was Hampden’s Caleb Lord, who crossed the finish line in 16:55.32.
At Washburn two days earlier, the Washburn girls and Fort Kent boys won team titles.
The Beaver girls had a perfect score of 15 by claiming the overall top five. Carsyn Koch won in 19:41, followed by Carmen Bragg (19:57), Mackenzie Worcester (20:17), Emilia Churchill (20:24) and Tori Koch (20:32).
Limestone-MSSM’s Ellyzabeth Bencivenga was 12th in 23:26.
On the boys’ side, Fort Kent’s Matt Toussaint had a 49-second margin of victory over teammate Sam Ouellette. Toussaint’s winning time was 16:24.
Taking third was Derek Baker of Washburn in 17:20. Cameron Preston and Alex Pelletier, also of the Beavers, were fifth and sixth, respectively.
William Popov of Limestone-MSSM was 12th in 19:41.
