Shafer & Evans top the field at WMCS, Falmouth girls & Cape boys top teams

Shafer & Evans top the field at WMCS, Falmouth girls & Cape boys top teams

 NYA's Hannah Austin wins girls D2 race & Matt Malcom takes the boys D2 race. Yarmouth girls & Fryeburg tops in D2

 

Boys Overall | Girls Overall | Boys D1 Team | Boys D2 Team | Girls D1 Team | Girls D2 Team

Photo Albums: MainetrackXC | Pauline Doane | Moosechili

Race Videos  Girls Varsity | Boys Varsity | Girls JV | Boys JV

Interviews  Heather Evans | Will Shafer | Sam Sewall | Eleanor Roberts | Liam Simpson

 

Boys Recap

The race for the boys individual title at WMC's was a good one on Friday. Leading the way at the beginning of the race was Falmouth junior Bryce Murdick, followed closely by a pair of seniors Liam Simpson (Cape) & Will Shafer (GNG). The trio would run side by side as the the covered the first in 5:15.

They were followed about 5 meters back by the chase pack led by Scott Lambert (Falmouth). Also in the pack was Patrick Carty (Fryeburg), Peter Doane (Cape) & Chandler Vincent of Freeport. With another pack back about 10 meters with Matt Malcom (NYA), Troy Cochrane (Greely), Mitch Morris (Cape), Rex Brockelman (York) & Connor Rog (Greely).

The second mile is downhill for the first half before a climb back up to the school. It was during the climb that front pack was reduced to just two runners. Simpson & Shafer started to increase the pace, with Murdick dropping back a few strides. The pace actually slowed down a bit during mile two as the leaders were around 10:35.

Moving up during mile 2 was Peter Doane to 4th with Chandler Vincent breaking away from his pack to 5th place. Lambert was 6th through 2 miles followed by Carty, Morris, Brockelman & Malcolm.

In the final mile the powerful Shafer used his speed to push through the hills to break away from Simpson with around 800m to go. Shafer would go on the cross the line first with a fine 16:26 clocking, good for 3rd best all-time on the course. Following 8 seconds later was Simpson, his time 16:34. A year ago on the same course Shafer ran 17:30, and just 2 week ago finished 7 seconds behind Simpson at FOC. Simpson who was 4th a year ago improved 29 seconds.

Doane increased his pace in the final mile to finish 3rd and a sub 17 clocking, 16:52. Next was Murdick (17:08) in 4th with a fast closing Vincent in 5th (17:11). Morris of Cape sprinted his way to 6th (17:16) with Lamber (17:17), & Malcolm (17:21) in 8th.

Malcolm would be the first D2 runner across the line as he edged Patrick Carty (Fryeburg) by just 1 second. Rex Brockelman of York rounded out the top 10 finishers with a 17:33 effort.

In the D1 boys race, Cape Elizabeth won their first WMC title since 2006, the capers were led by a 2-3-6 finish up front as they tallied 38 points. The Capers were still shorthanded as #3 runner Will Britton is just returning from an injury. Falmouth last year's champion had a strong day despite missing #4 runner Josh Simensky, The Yachtsmen had 53 points for the runner-up finish.

In D2, Fryeburg Academy was the top team with all 5 scorers in the top 10. They were 10 points 32-42 better than Merriconeag

 

Boys Top 10 finishers-picture by Bill Sandreuter

 

Boys Top 15 finishers

    1    1  127 Will Shafer        1   GNG                  16:26
    2    2  375 Liam Simpson       1   Cape                 16:34
    3    3  376 Peter Doane        1   Cape                 16:52
    4    4   65 Bryce Murdick      1   Falmouth             17:08
    5    5  164 Chandler Vincent   1   Freeport             17:11
    6    6  377 Mitch Morris       1   Cape                 17:16
    7    7   63 Scott Lambert      1   Falmouth             17:17
    8    8  213 Matt Malcom        2   NYA                  17:21
    9    9  499 Patrick Carty      2   Fryeburg             17:22
   10   10  322 Rex Brockelman     1   York                 17:33
   11   11   77 Sean Soucy         1   Falmouth             17:47
   12   12  378 Kyle Kennedy       1   Cape                 17:48
   13   13  488 Tucker Pierce      2   Merriconeag          17:49
   14   14  484 Zach Neveu         2   Merriconeag          17:51
   15   15    6 Troy Cochrane      1   Greely               17:55

 

Girls Recap

The girls featured a trio at the front of the race similiar to the boys. Falmouth's Madeline Roberts had the early pacing duties as senior Heather Evans (York ) & junior Hannah Austin (NYA) were running step for step with eachother. Each was considered an individual title threat in our WMC preview.

They only have a few meters over the chase pack which was led by freshman Malia Cryan (York), with another freshman Mira Wyman (Falmouth) & Caitlin Teare (Yarmouth) as they got closer to mile 1.

During the uphill climb in mile 2, Evans asserted herself and pulled away from Austin & Roberts to create a 9-10 second gap at the 2 mile mark. Austin using her quick turnover moved a few strides ahead of Roberts as they approached the hardest mile on the course.

Cryan was alone in 4th at the 2 mile, 5 seconds back in 5th was Sydney Ambrose of Freeport, with Wyman in 7th, Teare 8th & Elly Bengtsson moving up all the way to 9th. Antoinette Lambert rounding out the top 10.

The final mile would see Evans extend her lead to 12 seconds as she crossed the line first in 20:21. A year ago she finished 3rd (20:37).  Austin closed well to hold on to 2nd place, and the top D2 runner in the field. Her finishing time was 20:33, much better than her 21:03 from a year ago. Roberts of Falmouth led her team with a 3rd place finish, 20:47 as she held off a fast closing Ambrose of Freeport by 4 seconds.

Vishva Nalamalapu had one of the best final miles in the field as she moved from 12 at the 2 mile all the way up to 5th overall in the last mile. Bengtsson moved up 3 more spot over the final mile to 6th place (21:06), Lambert moved 3 spots as well to finish 7th (21:12). Cryan suffered a bit from her fast early pace as she dropped back to 8th, but still had the top freshman finish in the field. Caitlin Teare finished 9th while Wyman claimed the 10th spot (21:19)

In D1, Falmouth showed they are ready to take on their Class A foes next week in Western A regional with a dominating performance to win the WMC title. Falmouth scored just 31 points, with a 2-4-6-8-11 finish. Freeport was the top Class B team, the Falcons were motivated to show they will be threat the next two weeks, they scored 51. Greely even without #1 runner Kirstin Sandreuter finished 3rd with 85. York & Cape tied for 4th place.

In D2 Yarmouth blew away the field with 28 points, Class C Merriconeag was the runner-up with 84 points. Yarmouth finished 2-4-6-7-8 for their scoring 5. In the combined scoring the Clippers were the 4th best team.

 

 

 

Girls Top 15 finishers

    1    1  345 Heather Evans      1   York                 20:21
    2    2  227 Hannah Austin      2   NYA                  20:33
    3    3  105 Madeline Roberts   1   Falmouth             20:47
    4    4  140 Sydney Ambrose     1   Freeport             20:51
    5    5  100 Vishva Nalamalapu  1   Falmouth             20:59
    6    6  141 Elly Bengtsson     1   Freeport             21:06
    7    7   95 Antoinette Lambert 1   Falmouth             21:12
    8    8  342 Malia Cryan        1   York                 21:15
    9    9  436 Caitlin Teare      2   Yarmouth             21:18
   10   10  118 Mira Wyman         1   Falmouth             21:19
   11   11  489 Anna Lastra        2   Fryeburg             21:23
   12   12  404 Rhoen Fiutak       1   Cape Elizabeth       21:27
   13   13  145 Bethanie Knighton  1   Freeport             21:28
   14   14   93 Alexa Hoffman      1   Falmouth             21:30
   15   15  399 Sam Feenstra       1   Cape Elizabeth       21:32