By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
A couple of championship cross country meets took place this past week and local runners posted some solid results.
In Saturday’s Penobscot Valley Conference Championships held in Ellsworth, the Caribou boys were third out of eight teams and the girls were third out of six.
The top performance for the Viking boys was turned in by Ron Lund, who was fourth overall in 16:58.95. Teammate Brendan Cyr was 12th in 17:38.93. Ryan Washington of Caribou was 16th in 17:54.93.
“We were hoping to finish better than we did,” said Viking boys coach Roy Alden. “We haven’t been able to get us all running well on the same day, but Ron, Brendan and Tyler [Strid, who placed 37th in 18:48.38] all had excellent races.”
Alden said Lucas Kinney has worked 10- to 12-hour days throughout the harvest and is “just plain tired.” Kinney, who was the winner of the All-Aroostook Selection meet in Houlton Oct. 5 and has been one of the Vikes most consistent runners during the regular season, placed 45th Saturday with a time of 19:16.92.
The coach also praised the performance of five freshmen who placed among the top 11 in the JV race and make the “future look great.”
For the girls, sophomores Robyn and Nerissa Larrabee both fashioned top-10 efforts to lead the Vikings. Robyn was eighth in 20:17.72 and Nerissa was ninth in 20:33.14. Chelsea Bard placed 12th in 21:16.18 and Mackenzie Deveau was 18th in 22:03.51. Chelsea Haney rounded out Caribou’s scoring by placing 23rd.
The Vikings were without two of their top runners — Mackenzie Belyea and Kristin Macek — who were both nursing injuries.
“The girls who ran had breakthrough races,” said Caribou girls coach Thomas Beckum. “All five girls had personal bests on the Ellsworth course and ran their best without our first and fifth runners competing.”
The coach was also proud of the JV team, which hadn’t won a meet all year but took the PVCs by a three-point margin.
The Ellsworth boys and Mount Desert Island girls came away with team titles. The individual winners were Dan Curts of Ellsworth for the boys in 16:15.17 and Aleta Looker, also of Ellsworth, for the girls in 19:06.34.
In the Aroostook League championships, held Friday in Limestone, Washburn dominated the event as both the girls and boys captured team titles and also featured the individual meet winners.
The Beaver girls posted 16 points to defeat Greater Houlton Christian Academy, which had 46, for the victory. Limestone-MSSM, Fort Kent and Central Aroostook also had runners compete, but not enough to figure in the team results.
Carsyn Koch, who is the two-time defending state champion, took first place with a time of 19 minutes and 19 seconds. Three Washburn teammates followed — Mackenzie Worcester was second at 20:32, followed by Carmen Bragg at 21:12 and Emmy Churchill at 21:45.
The fifth-place finisher was GHCA Destinee Neureuther at 22:40. Beaver runners Marianne Helton (sixth, 23:09), Mikayla Churchill (seventh, 23:54) and Laina Mette (ninth, 24:20) finished among the top 10.
Limestone-MSSM runners Megan Goodell (24:49) and Lucy Wilcox (25:47) were 12nd and 14th, respectively.
Washburn’s Noah Caron, a freshman, led the way in the boys’ race with a time of 18:01. Fort Kent’s Kameran Husain (18:55) and Matt Toussaint (19:36) followed, with Central Aroostook’s Jacob Canney placing fourth in 19:46. Michael Ericson of the Beavers took the fifth position in 20:31.
Washburn runners Parker Thompson (seventh, 20:50), Keagan Page (eighth, 20:52) and Justin Davis (10th, 21:07) also cracked the overall top 10.
William Popov of the Eagles was 11th in 21:13.
The Beavers had the only full team competing and therefore finished with 15 points. Central Aroostook, Limestone-MSSM, GHCA and Fort Kent also had representatives at the meet.
Local cross country teams will next compete in the Eastern Maine championships this Saturday in Belfast.
