Washburn 2nd at Ellsworth
By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
The Washburn girls’ cross country team showed they can compete with most other schools in the region, regardless of size, by placing second at the Ellsworth Invitational.
Mount Desert Island eased to the victory with 32 points and featured four competitors among the top 10 overall, but Washburn scored 83 to finish ahead of 10 other teams, most of them Class B programs.
“I was very happy to see how well we ran,” said Beaver coach Mike Waugh. “It was very gratifying to see what I knew they could do materialize at Ellsworth. It’s one of the first big races of the year, and I think we turned some heads and I think the girls came away from it with more confidence.”
Aleta Looker of the host Eagles was the overall winner in 19 minutes, 35.14 seconds, but Washburn senior Carsyn Koch took fifth in 20:39.09. The Beavers’ next four scorers were within 11.15 seconds of each other as freshman Tori Koch was 17th in 22:18.59, junior Mackenzie Worcester 18th in 22:19.25, senior Carmen Bragg 21st in 22:23.86 and sophomore Emilia Churchill 22nd in 22:29.74.
The Larrabee twins led Caribou, with Robyn 23rd in 22:31.91 and Nerissa one spot and less than a second back in 22:32.5. The Vikings placed fifth in the meet with 153 points.
For Presque Isle, which was ninth with 217 points, Emily Colligan was 19th overall in 22:19.43 and Mandy Graham placed 25th in 22:37.96.
Eighty-one runners completed the girls’ event.
In the boys’ meet, the home team Eagles fashioned the first four runners across the finish line to dominate the field. Dan Curts won in 15:43.12, which was by a 1:22 margin of victory.
Caribou was fourth with 125 points, with senior Lucas Kinney placing seventh out of 90 runners in 17:50.61. Kyle Morris, a freshman, was 23rd in 18:48.69.
The Wildcats came in fifth as a team by tallying 127 points. The one-two punch of Trevor Levesque (11th, 18:22.15) and Saul Nunez (13th, 18:26.91) led the charge for PI.
The Washburn boys were 10th with 261 points. Alex Pelletier, a junior, paced his team by placing 40th in 19:48.44. Classmate Cameron Preston was 42nd in 19:50.22.
At Limestone last Wednesday, in a meet featuring Aroostook County’s Class C teams, Koch took the girls’ victory in the 5K in 20:51.44 and Matt Toussaint of Fort Kent was the boys’ winner in 18:18.46.
Washburn had six of the top seven runners on the girls’ side to ease to the team title. Tori Koch was the runner-up in 22:12.78 and was followed by Churchill, Worcester and Bragg, respectively.
Fort Kent won the boys’ meet. Derek Baker was the fastest Beaver runner in 19:18.1, taking third overall.
The Presque Isle Invitational will actually be held at Caribou High School Saturday, due to a conflicting event at UMPI. The junior varsity meets begin at 1 p.m., followed by the varsity at approximately 2:10 p.m.