CARIBOU, Maine — It was one of the lowest turnouts ever for the annual Caribou Labor Day 8K Road Race, which has the longest tradition for road races in Aroostook County, but in the end, a pair of familiar names were at the top of the list of finishers.
Only 20 runners registered for this year’s race, which was held Sept. 7 on a course beginning and ending at Caribou High School. There were three more in the walkers division.
Curtis Wheeler, a 29-year-old from New Sweden, captured the men’s and overall titles with a time of 29 minutes and 37 seconds. He was 54 seconds ahead of runner-up Evan Graves of Caribou, who crossed the line in 30:31.
Thomas Beckum of Caribou (31:23) was third, Isaiah Brown of Houlton (32:23) fourth and Caleb Hunter of Caribou (33:12) fifth.
For the women. Angela Ewings of Littleton grabbed the top spot in 40:44, with Julia Macek of Caribou the only other female taking part and she claimed first in the 50-59 age division.
For walkers, Connie McLellan of Cross Lake came in at 36:47 to finish just ahead of runner-up Amanda Robertson, whose time was 36:50. Kevin McCartney of Caribou was the only other walker and his time was 48:23.
Age division winners were: Trace Cyr of Presque Isle (39:33), 14-and-under male; Brown, 15-18 male; Chris Rines of Houlton (34:34), 19-29 male; Graves, 30-39 male; Steve Desmond of Caribou (35:03), 40-49 male; and Bruce Clark (36:23), 50-59 male.
The race was the final one of the year for the County Challenge Racing Series — an annual seven-race series sponsored by the Aroostook Musterds which kicked off in February. Final standings in the series will be released soon and overall and age group winners will be recognized with awards.
