Bondeson, a senior, was the only Caribou competitor on either the boys or girls team to capture a state title. The Vikings did have a strong overall showing in the race walk, taking four of the top seven places in the both the boys and girls races.
On the boys’ side, junior D.J. Flynn placed fourth in 7:59.42, junior Jake Michaud was fifth in 8:31.08 and sophomore Josh Kovach was seventh in 8:45.78.
For girls, freshman Emily Soderberg managed a second-place effort in 8:03.68. Paige Small, a sophomore, was fifth in 8:26, followed by junior Nicole Cyr in sixth in 9:08.44 and senior Kaysie Pelletier in seventh in 9:12.07.
“Finn had a great race,” Caribou coach Roy Alden said. “All the racewalkers have trained very hard and worked hard to be correct in their technique.”
The Caribou boys scored 18 of their meet total of 29 points in the race walk, while the Caribou girls scored 14 of their 20 in the same event.
The Falmouth boys and the Waterville girls were the meet champions. The Viking boys ended up eighth out of 21 teams, while the Viking girls were 10th out of 25.
Others placing among the top seven in their respective events for Caribou were the following:
Junior Christian Sleeper, third in the 800-meter run, 1:59.44; seventh in the 1,600-meter run, 4:34.76; senior Tim Freme, fifth in the 3,200-meter run, 10:01.39; junior Matt Till, seventh in the 400-meter dash, 52.97 seconds.
Freshman Olivia Sleeper, fourth in the 400-meter dash, 1:01.67; and seventh in the 100-meter dash, 13.17 seconds; and senior Danielle MacDonald, seventh in the javelin, 101 feet, 3 inches.
“Christian breaking two minutes in the 800 and Danielle going over 100 feet in the javelin were the highlights,” Alden said. “Olivia placing in two events as a freshman is special.”
The coach added the Sarae Sager just missed a school record by a few hundredths of a second in the 300-meter hurdles.
“It was a fun day, with so many young athletes, including 12 freshman, it was a great experience for them to be competing on a state level for the first time,” Alden said.
The Class C state meet, which was scheduled for Saturday at Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft, was postponed due to the rainy weather. Limestone-MSSM and Fort Fairfield has athletes scheduled to compete in that competition, which now will be held today at 2 p.m.
Bondeson walks away with Class B state title
WINDHAM, Maine – Finn Bondeson won the 1,600-meter race walk in a time of 7 minutes, 19.15 seconds to lead the Caribou Vikings in Saturday’s State Class B Track and Field Championships.
