By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
Caribou and Presque Isle used a meet held in Hermon Friday for their 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, 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.
Emily Colligan and Mandy Graham, both of the Wildcats were eighth and ninth, respectively. Colligan’s time was 22:26.62, with Graham following in 22:39.44.
Freshman Tia Tardy of Mattanawcook set the pace and won with a time of 20:42.68.
Presque Isle was third in the boys’ competition. Hampden earned the victory and like the girls, tucked four runners into the top 10.
For the ’Cats, Saul Nunez placed fifth in 18:17.75, with teammate Trevor Levesque two slots back in 18:18.33.
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).
Fort Kent was the only other team with enough runners to field a complete team. The Warriors had a score of 51.
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. Preston came in at 18:20 and Pelletier at 18:22.
Fort Kent had 22 points, followed by Washburn with 35. Limestone-MSSM and GHCA did not figure in the team results.
