Washburn runners earn league honors
By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
A couple of championship cross country meets took place this past week and local runners posted some solid results.
In the Aroostook League championships, held Friday in Limestone, Washburn dominated the event as both the girls and boys captured team titles and also featured the individual meet winners.
The Beaver girls posted 16 points to defeat Greater Houlton Christian Academy, which had 46, for the victory. Limestone-MSSM, Fort Kent and Central Aroostook also had runners compete, but not enough to figure in the team results.
Carsyn Koch, who is the two-time defending state champion, took first place with a time of 19 minutes and 19 seconds. Three Washburn teammates followed — Mackenzie Worcester was second at 20:32, followed by Carmen Bragg at 21:12 and Emmy Churchill at 21:45.
The fifth-place finisher was GHCS Destinee Neureuther at 22:40. Beaver runners Marianne Helton (sixth, 23:09), Mikayla Churchill (seventh, 23:54) and Laina Mette (ninth, 24:20) finished among the top 10.
Kayla Cushman of CA placed 11th overall in 24:36.
Washburn’s Noah Caron, a freshman, led the way in the boys’ race with a time of 18:01. Two Fort Kent runners followed, with Central Aroostook’s Jacob Canney placing fourth in 19:46. Michael Ericson of the Beavers took the fifth position in 20:31, while the Panthers’ Cody Barber was sixth in 20:45.
Washburn runners Parker Thompson (seventh, 20:50), Keagan Page (eighth, 20:52) and Justin Davis (10th, 21:07) also cracked the overall top 10.
The Beavers had the only full team competing and therefore finished with 15 points. Central Aroostook, Limestone-MSSM, GHCA and Fort Kent also had representatives at the meet.
In Saturday’s Penobscot Valley Conference Championships held in Ellsworth, the Presque Isle boys were fifth out of eight teams and the girls were fifth out of six.
The top performance for the Wildcat boys was turned in by Trevor Levesque, who was 31st in 18:33.84. Teammate Saul Nunez was 32nd in 18:36.19. Matt Tilley of PI was 36th in 18:47.35.
For the girls, freshman Mandy Graham of Presque Isle was 22nd in 22:10.30 and classmate and teammate Emily Colligan was 25th in 22:58.38. Bonnie Corey came in 33rd in 23:43.28.
The Ellsworth boys and Mount Desert Island girls came away with team titles. The individual winners were Dan Curts of Ellsworth for the boys in 16:15.17 and Aleta Looker, also of Ellsworth, for the girls in 19:06.34.
Local cross country teams will next compete in the Eastern Maine championships this Saturday in Belfast.
