By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
CARIBOU — The Viking girls cross country team continues to grow in numbers. With 28 members on this year’s squad, Caribou is hoping to show improvement from a 2010 season in which it placed third in Eastern Maine and seventh in the state at the Class B level.
Aroostook Republican photo/Jon Gulliver
PJ Gorneault leads the way at the start of the Caribou Labor Day 5K road race. Gorneault would go on to win the race by a large margin. Full results in next week’s Aroostook Republican.
Seventh-year coach Thomas Beckum said he has made connections with future cross country runners as a teacher at Woodland and New Sweden and coach of the Caribou Middle School track and field team.
“I work very hard to build positive relationships with my athletes that have helped me to build the strength of my program in quality and quantity of runners,” Beckum said.
This year’s team features junior Mackenzie Belyea, who placed 23rd in last year’s state meet in Belfast and who Beckum hopes can crack the top 15 this fall. She is the clear No. 1 on the Vikings after the loss to graduation of four-year runners Mary-Jo Sheehan and Dayna Michaud.
Caribou will draw from the strength of a freshmen group that has three runners currently among the top seven on the team. Kristin Macek, Robyn Larrabee and Nerissa Larrabee are among the nine ninth-graders who Beckum said “bring dedication and hard work to the team.”
Ten runners are in competition for starting positions, according to Beckum. Joining Belyea, Macek and the Larrabees are seniors Katelyn Plourde, Natasha Bishop, Kelly Kashian and Renee Dube; and juniors Chelsea Bard and Ashley Richards.
“The strong depth will be a contributor to the success of the team,” Beckum said, “but believing in success along with the ability to close the gap and run together will make this a competitive team.”
Beckum’s goal is to have five runners under 22 minutes for a five-kilometer race and “to run as a group and close the gap from the team’s fifth runner to the first.”
If that happens, the coach predicts the team will once again qualify for the state meet and make a run at finishing among the top five squads in that event.
The remainder of Caribou’s roster includes seniors Annie Collins, Lacy Cyr, Marigan Doody, Katrina McPherson and Paige Nadeau; juniors Kayla Murchison, Katherine Page and Rebekah Walker; sophomores Melanie Biggs, Sirena Cyr, Sara Hamlin and Allisa Irving; and freshmen Lauren Chapman, Mackenzie Deveau, Elise Gudde, Chelsea Haney, Rebecca Page and Kaitlyn Ring.
