By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
OLD TOWN — The Caribou boys picked up yet another first-place finish Saturday by winning the 62nd Old Town Sectional Invitational.
The Vikings did not have a runner in the top five, but did have six competitors among the top 15 out of 63 participants. The depth gave them 50 points on the afternoon, which bested runner-up John Bapst (68), third-place Ellsworth (76) and six other teams.
Contributed photo/Leo Kashian
Mackenzie Belyea of Caribou competes at the 62nd Old Town Sectional Invitational Cross Country meet last Saturday. Belyea was the top Caribou finisher placing third.
The individual champion was Orono’s Alex Bulteel, whose time on the three-mile course was 16 minutes and 41.45 seconds. He crossed the finish line just .34 seconds ahead of runner-up Dan Curts of Ellsworth. Less than 16 seconds back was Presque Isle’s Matt Eager, whose time of 16:57.06 established a new personal record for the distance.
“He looked strong and was right with the race leaders until the last half mile,” said PI coach Marie Beckum. “The next step is to build confidence in his ability to race with the leaders all the way to the finish line.”
Leading Caribou was Caleb Chapman, who was sixth overall in 17:39.42. Finishing eighth and ninth, respectively, were teammates Ryan Washington (18:02.21) and Brendan Wood (18:14.89).
“Brendan had a great finish, working his way by three runners in the last 400 meters,” said Caribou coach Roy Alden.
Claiming the 13th, 14th and 15th positions were Viking runners Lucas Kinney (18:24.27), Jesse Sandstrom (18:31.63) and Ron Lund (18:32.68).
“We ran well again this week, but not great,” Alden added. “Hopefully the next few weeks we will be able to take it to another level.”
Also for Presque Isle, who placed sixth as a team, Matt Tilley was 31st in 19:32.99. He established a new personal best for a 5K race by nearly one minute, according to his coach. Trevor Levesque was the third PI runner to cross the finish line with a time of 19:53.37, good for 37th place. Frank Nunez (20:06.26), Saul Nunez (20:15.76) and Noah Rossignol (20:17.67) finished within 11 seconds of one another and were 41st, 43rd and 44th, respectively.
“Looking ahead to the PVC championship and the regional meet, it will be imperative that we get five runners under 20 minutes in order to be competitive as a team,” Beckum added.
The Caribou JV boys took the top spot behind Kjetil Rossignol’s third-place finish in 19:33.8. Zeb Johnson, Brendan Cyr and Tyler Strid were fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.
In the girls’ competition, Caribou demonstrated its continued improvement by placing third out of eight teams. The Vikings scored 64 points, with MDI winning the meet with 41 and John Bapst second with 55.
Contributed photo/Leo Kashian
Caleb Chapman of Caribou paced the Viking boys cross country team, finishing sixth, at the 62nd Old Town Sectional Invitational Cross Country meet this past weekend.
“The girls stepped it up another notch and closed the gap on John Bapst,” said Caribou girls coach Thomas Beckum. “We had seven girls run their personal best times from last year on the Old Town course and six freshmen ran their fastest time of the year for a 5K. John Bapst went out fast the first mile and Caribou ran as a group and then ran tough in the middle of the race to catch them.
“We looked like we were going to take the team title, but MDI and John Bapst passed us with half mile to go,” he added.
Aleta Looker of Ellsworth was the individual champ with a time of 19:45.53. She was more than a minute faster than runner-up Adrienne Carmack of John Bapst.
Caribou ended up placing all seven runners in the top 24. MacKenzie Belyea (third, 20:55.04), Katelynn Plourde (12th, 22:03.37), Kelly Kashian (21st, 22:41.38) and Chelsea Bard (23rd, 22:49.91) were the varsity runners recording their personal bests, as did JV runners Katherine Page, Sirena Cyr and Allissa Irving.
Nerissa Larrabee (15th, 22:18.54), Kristin Macek (17th, 22:25.43), Renee Dube (24th, 22:58.41), Robyn Larrabee (second in the JV race, 22:51.8) and JV runners Mackenzie Deveau, Melanie Biggs, Lauren Chapman, Chelsea Haney and Kaitlynn Ring all ran their fastest times of the year, according to their coach.
The Caribou JV girls also won the team title and are undefeated for the year. Ashley Richards was fourth and Page sixth to back Robyn Larrabee’s performance.
“We need to continue to run in groups and feed off each other and the team will run faster,” said Thomas Beckum.
The next race is the Festival of Champions in Belfast Oct. 1. The girls race begins at 11:30 a.m. and the boys race at 12:30 p.m. The event draws numerous teams from throughout the state and a few from out of state and is one of the largest high school cross country competitions held in Maine.
