Class C State XC Championship Preview
The girls individual title is up for grabs, and the team races are expected to be tight In the Class C races. The girls race goes off at 12:30pm followed by the boys race at 1:15pm. Who should you keep an eye on? Check out our individual & team preview.
Boys Individual
Josef Holt of Telstar is the heavy favorite to win the Class C individual title
Josef Holt (Telstar)
Holt has been the best runner in the state of Maine this fall. He is currently ranked#23 in the Saucony Elite 50 individual national rankings. Josef will be looking to win his first invidiual xc title after finishing as the runner-up the last 2 years. He has been nothing short of spectular this fall, with a 15:27 effort at Manchester Invitational, followed up by his course record 15:06.92 at FOC in Belfast. Last weekend Holt cruised to the WM Regional win as he clocked the fastest time of the day, 15:54. He ran in complete contorl making 5:04 miles seem like he was out for a jog. Josef will likely conserve energy this weekend with the NE Championship next week at Manchester.
Matt Touissant (Fort Kent)
Touissant is coming off a win at the EM Regional that saw him break 17 minutes for the first with his 16:51.81 effort. The junior won by a comfortable margin of 33 seconds last weekend. Matt previously was the PVC small school champion 2 weeks ago, finishing 2nd overall behind Ellsworth's Brayden Beardsley. Matt will be looking to be in the pack right behind Holt on Saturday.
Ben Allen (Winthrop)
Allen finished as the WM Regional runner-up a week ago, as he summoned a strong kick over the final 200m to get by NYA's Matt Malcolm. The junior from Winthrop clocked a 17:13.58 which ranked him 21st overall of all runners at the WM Regional races. Ben finished as the MVC conference runner-up to Holt as well. A year ago he placed 11th in the state meet,
Matt Malcolm (NYA)
Malcom a junior from NYA ran in second place for most of last weekend's WM regional before being passed in the end by Ben Allen. Matt still recorded a strong 3rd place finish running 17:15.54. A year ago Matt finished 10th in the state meet one place in front of Allen.
Boys Teams
Boothbay won the WM Regional in convincing fashion, they will be one of the favorites to win the state title this weekend.
Boothbay
The Seahawks dominated the WM regional placing 4 runners inside of the top 11 finishers for a low score of 47, 50 points in front of the runner-up. Boothbay was led by Benn Scully's 17:51.08, 6th place finish. Boothbay averaged 18:15 for the scoring runners. The Seahawks last won a state title in 2009.
Orono
The Red Riots won the EM Regional with 4 runners in the top 7 to tally 33 points to outdistance the runner-up George Stevens Academy by 17 points. Orono averaged 17:56 for their scoring 5 runners. Coming into the meet based on last week's performance only it would appear that Orono will challenge for the team title on Saturday.
Girls Individual
Carsyn Koch (Washburn)
Koch will be running for history on Saturday as she tries to win her 4th straight Class C XC indiivdual title. Carsyn is looking to match the 4 titles of Abbey Leonardi won from 2008-2011 in Class A. Koch won the EM Regional a week ago by 28 seconds, as she covered the 5k layout at Belfast in 19:30.34.
Sophia Canning (Waynflete)
Canning has run only 2 xc meets this fall, as she has split her time between soccer. She showed her immense talent as she she has won both inlcuding the WM Regional last weekend. Canning clocked 20:37.55 on the Twin Brook last weekend. She was scheduled to have a soccer playoff match on Frida but due to weather the match was moved to Saturday at 2pm, so it appears Sophia won't be competing in the state meet.
Hannah Austin (NYA)
Austin a junior from NYA has had a great fall. Last weekend Hannah finished as the WM Regional runner-up behind Canning, running 20:39. She finished 2nd in the WMC Championship 2 weeks ago, and has a best of 19:27 for 5k this fall. A year ago Austin placed 3rd in the state meet.
Others to Watch
Tia Tardy (Mattanawcook)- The freshman has had a great season, she was the EM Regional runner-up last week to Koch, her time was 19:58.
Lily Koffman (Orono)- Koffman is coming off a 3rd place finish in the EM Regional last weekend, a year ago she was the state runner-up.
Girls Teams
Orono
The Riots knocked off defending regional champion Washburn in winning the Eastern Maine Regional last weekend. Orono finished 3-4-5-6 to tally 29 points. Leading the way was Lily Koffman with her 3rd place finish. Orono will be shooting to win their first team title in Class C since 1976!
Washburn
The defending state champions went down to Orono at EM Regionals by a score of 29-35. Washburn will be looking to turn the tables on Saturday and win another title. 3x defending individual champion Carsyn Koch leads the way.
Waynflete
The Flyers dominated the WM Regional by 64 points behind the individual win of Sophia Canning. With Canning out of the lineup the Flyers still would have won the title by 2 points. It looks like they will have to go at without Canning this weekend which is a blow to their title hopes.