Palmer first at Caribou

    CARIBOU — The Caribou Night Race, held Friday on the 2.75-mile course behind the high school, was the featured cross country race of the weekend involving Aroostook County schools.     Thirty nine boys and 29 girls participated in the competition, which saw the host Vikings come away with both the boys and girls titles.
    The Caribou boys, which had the first four runners and five of the first six overall, compiled 16 points to best Presque Isle, which had 40. Fort Kent and Greater Houlton Christian Academy did not field full teams.
    Christian Sleeper ran to the win in 15 minutes and 18 seconds. Teammates right behind were Timothy Freme (15:32), Finn Bondeson (15:40) and D. J. Flynn (15:46).
    Presque Isle’s Logan Thibeau took the fifth slot in 15:59, but Caribou’s Jake Michaud closed out his team’s scoring with a sixth-place finish in 16:00.
    Matt Eager (16:18), Chris Cawley (16:22) and Tyler Hotham (17:08) grabbed the seventh, eighth and ninth positions, respectively, while Caribou’s Robbie Kiehn was 10th in 17:25.
    Nick Bragg of Washburn ran independently and took 15th in 18:31. The first GHCA runner was Ren Shirai, whose time was 17:57, good for 11th place, while teammate Micah Wiley was next in 18:16. First for Fort Kent was Lucas Woodard, who was 18th in 18:45.
    On the girls’ side, Alecia Palmer of Presque Isle took the individual title by finishing in 18:23 – 10 seconds ahead of Caribou’s Dayna Michaud and 14 seconds ahead of Mary Jo Sheehan, also of Caribou.
    However, the Vikings were able to capture team bragging rights by scoring 24 points to PI’s 33. Fort Kent and GHCA did not have enough runners to qualify for a team score.
    After the top three, Kendra Stephens of Caribou was next in 19:10. Presque Isle runners took the fifth and sixth positions, as Elizabeth Wright was fifth in 19:10 and Jaylee Fox sixth in 19:25.
    Rounding out the top 10 were Katie Plourde (19:31), Mackenzie Belyea (19:33) and Kelly Kashian (19:49), all of Caribou, and Presque Isle’s Hallie Bartlett (19:50).
    Cassidy Spencer was the first Fort Kent runner to cross the finish line and came in at 20:13, 14th overall. GHCA’s lone competitor was Whitney Cote, who was 24th in 23:36.