By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
The defending Class B state champion Caribou boys cross country team made a strong statement on Saturday that they plan to contend for another title this season.
The Vikings tucked four runners in the top 10 to score 44 points and ease to the championship at the annual Ellsworth Invitational.
“I think we surprised a few people,” said Caribou coach Roy Alden. “They handled the excitement and pressure of a big race really well. I was very pleased with how hard they worked on a very tough course.
“As a team, this should give us the confidence that we can compete with the best in the state and make us more determined than ever to do everything we can to keep improving.”
The meet, held on a course measuring three miles in length, included 13 teams. Most were fellow Penobscot Valley Conference schools, with Sanford making the trip up to represent Western Maine.
The varsity meet had 84 participants, with Dan Curts of the host Eagles turning in the winning time of 16 minutes and 51 seconds. However, Caribou’s depth proved too much with Caleb Chapman placing fifth in 17:21, Ryan Washington sixth in 17:25, Ron Lund ninth in 17:58 and Jesse Sandstrom 10th in 18:20.
“Ryan had a great race and Ron showed he can handle racing on the varsity level,” Alden said.
Lucas Kinney capped the team’s scoring by placing 14th in 18:33. Kjetil Rossignol ended up 19th in 19:03 and Joshua Kovach 27th in 19:23 to round out the list of Caribou competitors.
“We have the potential to have five or six athletes racing a five-kilometer race 20 to 30 seconds apart by late in the season,” said the coach.
John Bapst finished second with 77 points, followed by Ellsworth with 96 and Sanford fourth with 98.
The Caribou girls came in third in their meet, scoring 60 points to trail only John Bapst, which won the competition with 29 points, and Mount Desert Island, which scored 49. The Vikings had all seven of their runners finish among the top 22 out of 60 competitors, highlighted by Mackenzie Belyea’s third-place performance in 20:55.
Ellsworth’s Aleta Looker was the overall winner in 20:20 and Adrienne Carmack of John Bapst followed in 20:43.
Also for Caribou, Kristin Macek was ninth in 22:17, Katelynn Plourde 14th in 22:40, Natasha Bishop 16th in 22:52, Nerissa Larrabee 19th in 23:10, Robyn Larrabee 20th in 23:19 and Kelly Kashian 22nd in 23:37.
In the junior varsity competitions, the Viking girls and boys both prevailed behind individual wins by Chelsea Bard (23:09) and Brendan Wood (19:18).
At Fort Kent last Wednesday, the Washburn girls and boys came away with victories on the 2.9-mile course.
Carsyn Koch of the Beavers set the pace in the girls’ race. Koch, the defending Class C state champion, had a time of 22:21. Mackenzie Worcester and Carmen Bragg, Koch’s teammates, were second and third, respectively. Worcester’s time was 22:59 and Bragg came across the finish line in 23:16.
Limestone-MSSM’s Lucy Wilcox came in fourth place in 25:47, while teammate Helen Roberts was seventh in 28:20. They were the only Eagle runners competing.
Marianne Helton, Joan Overman and Hannah Heald were eighth, ninth and 10th, respectively, for the winning Beavers. They totalled 17 points to defeat Greater Houlton Christian Academy, which posted 46. Fort Kent also did not figure in the team results.
Nick Bragg had the winning time for Washburn in the boys’ event at 19:53. The Beavers notched a meet-low 31 points by getting solid efforts out of Michael Ericson (fifth, 21:58), Ethan Pendexter (eight, 25:17) and Cameron Preston (ninth, 25:22). Kyle McLaughlin was Washburn’s other scorer, coming in 12th in 27:32.
Max Holtzman of Limestone-MSSM came in 14th place with a clocking of 30 minutes flat.
GHCA placed second in team scoring with 42 points and the host Warriors had 51.
The next local race is the Presque Isle Invitational, slated for Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. at the University of Maine at Presque Isle.