Boys, and girls track and field team among top 10 in the state
DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — The Caribou varsity track and field teams both placed among the top 10 teams participating in the Class C state track and field championships, held Saturday.
The Vikings boys placed eighth out of 35 teams by scoring 24 points. The girls’ team notched 19.75 to take 10th out of 32.
Also highlighting the day was an individual title picked up by Washburn’s Jovanni Taveras in the javelin. The Fort Fairfield Tiger boys had a strong showing as a team with 19.6 points and a 12th-place effort.
A majority of Caribou’s points came in the 1,600-meter racewalk as Evan Desmond took third in 7:24.54, Lukas Lagasse was fourth in 7:42.19 and Bryce Coffin fifth in 7:44.08.
Senior Chathu Karunasiri ran with the leader, Nicholas Harriman of Lisbon, until the final stages of the race and held on as the runner-up in the 3,200 with a time of 10:22.16.
The Viking boys scored points in the 4×800 relay, as Evan Michaud, Richard Newland, Karunasiri and Elijah Verhoff registered a sixth-place effort in 8:51.38. Michaud was seventh in the pole vault at 10 feet, 6 inches.
Girls’ scorers included the 4×400 relay team, consisting of Willow Whitten, Madeline Gudde, Meagan Dube and Alexis Rodriguez, which took third in 4:20.16. The four just missed the school record and recorded Caribou’s fastest time in the event since 1993.
The 4×800 relay team, consisting of Whitten, Sarae Greenier, Gudde and Rodriguez, ended up fourth in 10:35.48.
Individually for the Viking girls, JoJo Fields was fifth in the 100 hurdles in 17.63 seconds, Rodriguez fifth in the 1,600 in 5:34.2, Gudde sixth in the 800 in 2:29.33, Emma Belyea seventh in the racewalk in 9:13.26 and Kendra Furber tied for sixth in the pole vault at 6 feet, 9 inches.
“We are extremely pleased with the effort and the focus of our athletes,” said Caribou coach Roy Alden. “Both teams worked extremely hard and we had some extremely exciting performances from some of our younger athletes in particular.”
The Caribou teams both picked up sportsmanship awards for the Class C northern region.
For his win, Taveras threw the javelin 153 feet, 2 inches to win by 18 inches over his closest competitor, Abel Bryer of Boothbay. He was the eighth and final qualifier in the prelims, but came through with the best throw of the event in the finals.
Freshman Jonah Daigle had a strong overall meet for Fort Fairfield. He took third in the 110-meter hurdles in 16 seconds, fifth in the 300 hurdles in 43.03 seconds and sixth in the long jump at 19 feet, 7.25 inches. Colin Goshorn, Daigle’s teammate, placed fourth in the pole vault by clearing 11 feet and he was also fifth in the 110 hurdles (17.22 seconds). Landon Kinney tied for sixth in the high jump (5 feet, 4 inches).
LCS/MSSM had some athletes competing in the boys’ meet, but none placed.
Fort Fairfield, LCS/MSSM and Washburn athletes did not place in the girls’ meet.
