Horne & Murphy best in KVAC, Bangor boys spring upset, Maranacook sweeps Class B titles
Hampden Academy girls win Class A girls title, while Ben Trapani (CH) repeats in Class B Boys, Abby Hersom (Oceanside) tops in B girls
Results: Class A Girls | Class B Girls | Class A Boys | Class B Boys
Race Videos: Varsity Girls | Varsity Boys | Girls JV | Boys JV
Photos: Badknees
Championship meet experience paid off for Teresa Murphy of Brunswick. The senior showed great patience as she didn't go with the fast early pace set by freshman Anne Guadalupi of Cony. Gauadalupi running in her first high school championship race, showed courage as she attacked the race from the gun, a move that almost paid off. In the end Murphy was able to execute her race to perfection as she was able to get the lead late in the race, going on the win the race in 20:40, 3 seconds in front of Guadalupi (20:43)
Murphy had this to say about her race strategy "My goal was to start moderately and not slow down. Then in the race I kept a steady pace, and by the time I caught up to Anne felt like I had enough energy to push ahead.
Senior Abbey Hersom of Oceanside showed similiar patience as she moved her way up throughout the race, in the end she would get all the way to 3rd to claim the Class B title. Hersom finished in 20:49. Following her was Camden Hills senior Birittany Bowman who had one of her best races of the season to finish 4th overall & second to Hersom in the Class B race
Brunswick sophomore Tessa Cassidy used a strong last mile, coupled with a strong finishing kick to move into 5th (21:12) just one second in front of Hampden Academy's Elizabeth Labun (21:13). Lewiston's Farihyo Aden crossed the line in 7th (21:21). There was a 20 second gap until the next group finish with Kelly Lynch of Mt Ararat leading the way to an 8th place finish (21:42), she was followed 3 second by freshman Maggie Hickey of Mt Blue (21:45) who held off a furious kick from Erica Jenson of Waterville (21:46).
The Hampden Academy Broncos had an outstanding meet as they tallied 52 points to finish 13 points in front of pre-meet favorite Brunswick in the Class team race. In the latest MaineTrackXC Athlete/Fan Poll Hampden was unranked while the Dragons were #11. Hampden placed all 5 scoring runners in the top 18, they were led up front by Elizabeth Labun (5th), and got a top 10 finish out of Roxy Withers & Simone Withers (9th & 10th) respectively.
The Black Bears of Maranacook dominated the team race in Class B as they won by 30 points over Camden Hills. Maranacook one of the pre-meet favorites were led up fron by Hannah Despres, and then put their top 5 runners in front of an injury depleted Camden Hills team 3rd runner. Next week Maranacook will head to Southern Maine to run in the Western B regional at Twinbrook while Camden Hills will head east for the Eastern Maine regional at Belfst/
Class A Girls Top 10 Individuals
1 Teresa Murphy SR Brunswick 20:40.4 1 2 Anne Guadalupi FR Cony High School 20:43.6 2 3 Tessa Cassidy SO Brunswick 21:12.3 3 4 Elizabeth Labun JR Hampden Academy 21:13.6 4 5 Farhiyo Aden JR Lewiston 21:21.7 5 6 Kelly Lynch SR Mt. Ararat 21:42.3 6 7 Maggie Hickey FR Mt. Blue 21:45.9 7 8 Roxy Withers SR Hampden Academy 22:07.5 8 9 Simone Withers FR Hampden Academy 22:07.8 9 10 Angelyn Masters SR Bangor High School 22:20.8 10
Class B Girls Top 10 Individuals
1 Abby Hersom SR Oceanside 20:49.8 1 2 Brittany Bowman SR Camden Hills 21:07.1 2 3 Erica Jenson SO Waterville 21:46.0 3 4 Hannah Despres JR Maranacook 21:53.6 4 5 Cassandra Howard SR Belfast High School 22:05.4 5 6 Audrey Jones SR Winslow High School 22:08.5 6 7 Joann Bourgoin JR Winslow High School 22:12.6 7 8 Julia Labbe FR Leavitt 22:17.2 8 9 Amy Franklin SR Morse High School 22:25.7 9 10 Erin Guilmet SO Maranacook 22:52.5 10
Boys Recap
As they have done all year long the Mt Blue duo of Josh Horne & Aaron Willingham were at the front of the pack at the KVAC Championship controlling the early pace. This dynamic duo has been impressive this fall with one of them crossing the finish line first in all regular season KVAC meets, and today was much of the same. They did have some company early on in senior Sam Wood of Mt Ararat, and then later on in the finishing stages from junior Caleb Lord of Hampden Academy, but in the end it was the senior Horne who maintained his lead throughout to win the title. His time was 17:05, good enough to hold off a hard charging Lord (17:07.1) & Willingham (17:07.8).
Lord who didn't get out with the lead pack showed great patience and poise as he worked his way through to the front throughout the race. The junior finished well behind Horne & Willingham at the Festival of champions two weeks, but showed he's one to watch in the Class A individual title chase with his breakout race of 2013. Willingham, who entered the race as the favorite after his 15:42 effort at FOC, finished a strong third.
Camden Hills senior Ben Trapani last year's individual winner finished 4th, and was the first Class B athlete across the line to take the individual title. Trapani's time was 17:17.5. Next was Dan Lesko of Mt Blue in 5th (17:18), this was a breakout race for the junior as he moved passed several athletes that had finished in front of him 2 weeks ago at FOC. It also gave the cougars a 1-3-5 finish.
Lewiston's Mohamed Awil was next across the line 6th (17:28) to lead his Blue Devil pack. Bangor's Jonathan Stanhope finished strong over the latter part of the race for 7th (17:31). Isaiah Harris of Lewiston was next (17:37) with Chris Cote of Waterville following him (17:40). Cote was the second Class B runner across the line.
Continuing his late season surge Ben Salinas of Bangor rounded out the top 10 with his 17:42 effort.
The Rams of Bangor pulled a majot upset in the Class A team race. Bangor who was 72 point underdogs in the virtual meet had a strong race as they finished 6-8-15-16-27 in the Class A race, they also got a break when #1 state ranked Lewiston didn't run #3 runner Mohamed Mohamed (IT Band injury), and then had regular 6th runner turn an ankle in the first mile. Credit the Rams for coming through in a championshio meet, and will take a huge confidence boost heading into the next 2 weeks. Lewiston ran great up front finishing 5-7-9-10, while the 5th runner scored 55. The end results was a 72-86 final score. The Blue Devils will get Mohamed Mohamed back in the lineup for regional next week, and will be extra motivated to take the team title. Mt Blue finished 3rd paced by the 1-3-4 finish.
Behind the 3-4 finish from Jason Stevenson & Austin Landry the Black Bears of Maranacook claimed the the Class B team title. Maranacook went on the finish 3-4-11-14-25 to tally 57 points. The effort was good for a 24 point win over runner-up Lincoln Academy. Camden Hills finished 3rd with 89 points.
Top 10 Boys Class A Individuals
1 Josh Horne SR Mt. Blue 17:05.4 1 2 Caleb Lord JR Hampden Academy 17:07.1 2 3 Aaron Willingham JR Mt. Blue 17:07.8 3 4 Dan Lesko JR Mt. Blue 17:18.5 4 5 Mohamed Awil SR Lewiston 17:28.3 5 6 Jonathan Stanhope SR Bangor High School 17:31.3 6 7 Isaiah Harris JR Lewiston 17:37.2 7 8 Ben Salinas SR Bangor High School 17:42.4 8 9 Farhan Abdillahi SR Lewiston 17:43.0 9 10 Osman Mohamed SO Lewiston 17:54.7 10
Top 10 Boys Class B Individuals
1 Ben Trapani SR Camden Hills 17:17.5 1 2 Chris Cote JR Waterville 17:40.5 2 3 Jason Stevenson SR Maranacook 17:46.5 3 4 Austin Landry SR Maranacook 17:46.9 4 5 Harrison Knowlton JR Leavitt 18:06.8 5 6 Christopher Walfield SO Morse High School 18:28.0 6 7 Avery Genus SO Lincoln Academy 18:29.4 7 8 Erik Dodge SR Erskine Academy 18:33.4 8 9 Caleb Love-Webb FR Camden Hills 18:35.8 9 10 Nicholas Smelcer SR Lincoln Academy 18:39.0 10
Other Media Coverage
KVAC Cross Country Championships: Bangor boys upset wounded Lewiston; Horne sounds for Mt. Blue (Sun Journal)
HIGH SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY: Mt. Blue's Horne pulls away to win KVAC A title (Morning Sentinel)