Evan Graves from Caribou and Samatha Matoush from Bangor were the male and female winners of the County Open Half Marathon held in Island Falls last Saturday morning.
Contributed photo
Evan Graves of Caribou is the first to cross the finish line at the second annual County Open Half Marathon in Island Falls.
More than 80 runners competed over the 13.1-mile course with Graves’ time of 1:16:64 leading the way. He was three minutes over the course record set in 2009 by Chris Peverda from Hampden, who did not compete this year.
Matoush was seven minutes behind the women’s record, set by Britta Fortson on ’09. Fortson, from Jacksonville, Fla., finished second this year, a minute behind Matoush.
Joe Capehart from Bangor ran second, only six seconds slower than his time from ’09, when he was also second. Jason Bigonia from Newcastle and Sharon Hathaway from Ohio were third in times of 1:20:23 and 1:35:44, respectively.
The masters winners were Lee-Rae Jordan-Oliver from Hodgdon and Peter Lodge from Bangor in times of 1:57:51 and 1:28:06.
Other winners on the warm, sunny day were: ages up to and including 19, Tyler Strid from Caribou and Lauren Hodge from Connecticut; ages 20-29, Ty Thurlow from Lee and Marie Beckum from Caribou; ages 30-39, Thomas Beckum from Caribou and Theresa Parady from Milo; ages 40-49, Joseph Ewings from Littleton and Jill Dunett from Woodstock, N.B.; ages 50-59, winners were Leo Kashian from Caribou and Robin Norsworthy from Presque Isle; and the ages 60-69 winner was Larry Tonzi from Linneus.
Nine teams participated in the relay portion of the half marathon. Winning the four-person division was the Caribou contingency of Levi Bither, Charm Karunasiri, Dillion Beckum and Grahm Freme. In the two-person teams, winners were Angela Ewings from Littleton and Trevor Levesque from Presque Isle.
This was the largest turnout for this event in the three years it has been held on the scenic roads of Island Falls, said race organizer John Walker. Prizes were awarded to all the winners in the form of cash, gifts or gift certificates. Each year the number of participants gets larger, so the steady uphill in the 8-9 mile mark is not too bad.
The net proceeds from this event go to the Health Services Foundation.
