Houlton High School and Greater Houlton Christian Academy cross-country runners competed in the Caribou Invitational on Saturday.
Houlton coach Chris Rines said that his runners competed successfully in their second race of the season.
“Caribou is a very unusual style race that is set up more like you would see a Nordic skiing race,” Rines explained. “They line up every team’s number 1 runner and they race against each other. Then seven minutes later, the number 2 runners go working their way down until all runners have left.”
The Houlton girls had enough runners to compete as a team and finish the race for a score of 190. Caribou High School won overall with 56 points; MDI, 62; John Bapst, 68; Washburn, 105; Presque Isle, 114; Old Town, 135; and Hermon, 183.
The Houlton boys did not have enough runners to compete as a team, as they were without the services of Adam Casillas.
“I suspect if he had run, we would have been just ahead of Washburn,” said Rines.
The Caribou Vikings won the overall meet with a 52, followed by MDI with 67; Fort Kent, 80; Presque Isle, 106; Old Town, 143; Foxcroft Academy, 161; John Bapst, 166; Washburn, 167 and Hermon, 207.
GHCA does not field enough runners to have either a boys or girls team.
“It was a nice day for running, all of the kids did really well, even though their places may not reflect it, there was some very strong competition,” said Rines.
Houlton’s Rylee Warman finished sixth overall in the meet with a time of 21:59.52.
“Rylee was the second fastest Aroostook County girl,” Rines added.
Finishing first overall in the girls’ competition was Amanda Boyd of John Bapst with a time of 20:45.55; second, Lydia Dacorte, MDI, 21:17.23; third, Allison Ketch, Old Town, 21:36.08; fourth, Mandy Graham, Presque Isle, 21:51.22; and fifth, Emma Strong, MDI, 21:55.46. Rounding out the top 10 performers were No. 7, Robyn Larrabee, Caribou, 22:01.66; No. 8, Mackenzie Worcester, Washburn, 22:13.26; No. 9, Nerissa Larrabee, Caribou, 22:14.31; and No. 10, Kaitlyn Berube, John Bapst, 22:14.48.
Other Houlton scores were: No. 44, Emma Hines, 25:59.01; No. 54, Victoria Holmes, 27:45.01; No. 55, Emily Dickison, 27:53.07 and No. 57, Olivia Winslow, 28:24.11.
“Emma, Victoria, Emily and Olivia all ran their personal bests in this race,” Rines added.
Matt Toussaint of Fort Kent was first overall with a time of 16:56.01; second, Josh Zapsky, Hermon, 17:42.90; third, Jason Bartley, Presque Isle, 18:09.33; fourth, Jordan Harris, MDI, 18:13.49; fifth, Peter Philbrook, MDI, 18:18.22; sixth, Ralph Magnani, MDI, 18:18.27; seventh, Skyler Bernstein, Fort Kent, 18:25.15; eighth, Caleb Hunter, Caribou, 18:36.84; ninth, Evan Desmond, Caribou, 18:40.36 and 10th, Mitchell St. Peter, Caribou, 18:43.96.
Local boys runners finished as follows: No. Isaiah Brown, Houlton, 19:39.11; No. 29, Dustin Hines, 19:45.91; No. 36, Wesley Ganglfinger, GHCA, 20:09.42; No. 48, Noah Holmes, Houlton, 21:11.63; No. 58, Alex Walker, GHCA, 23:34.37; and No. 60, Trey Whitney, Houlton, 23:41.80.
The GHCA cross-country runners competed in the Limestone/MSSM meet on Sept. 3.
Winning the girls’ division was Jordan Tanguay, Fort Kent, with a time of 23:08.20 and the overall male winner was Fort Kent’s Toussaint, 16:43.40.
Rachel Potter finished with a time of 41:24.40, while Ganglfinger was clocked at 21:26.90 and Walker, 24:34.50 for GHCA.
In an earlier meet in Fort Kent, Emmy Churchill of Washburn was the girls’ winner with a time of 23:12 and Toussaint won the boys’ race with a time of 17:50.
The Fort Kent course was three miles and schools participating included Washburn, Limestone/MSSM and GHCA.
GHCA’s Potter finished with a time of 45:42, while Ganglfinger landed in the eighth position with a time of 22:26.
