Koch 4 peats, Holt cruises, Orono girls & Boothbay boys win team titles in close races
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Washburn's Carsyn Koch was chasing a little individual history on Saturday in addition to trying to help her repeat as team champions.
The senior entered Saturday having won the previous 3 individual Class C titles, she was aiming to become only the second female in Maine history to win 4 individual titles. Current Oregon Duck & former Kennebunk HS standout Abbey Leaonardi completed the quad back in 2008-2011 in Class A.
Coming off a win at the Eastern Maine Regional the week before, Koch got right down to business once the gun went off.
By the 800m mark, the lead for Carysn was already 8 seconds, with Tia Tardy (Mattanawcook) running in second, and NYA's Hannah Austin next.
At the 1 mile mark the lead remained the same for Koch, Tardy remained second, with Austin being joined by Boothbay's Sophia Thayer.
Following them was a sea of red, as Orono had the next 3 runners as Lily Koffman, Kassidy Dill & Hannah Steelman ran in 5th -7th spots They were followed by the Madison duo Aly Leblanc & Olivia Demchak & Gabi Stone of Telstar.
Koch's lead at 2 mile has extended to 12 seconds, with Austin of NYA movng into second place with Tardy a few strides back in third place. The rest of field remained the same for spots 4-8. Stone has moved one spot in front of Demchak.
In the final mile, Koch continue to open up her lead, and she came down the homstretch alone en route to her 4th straight state title, running 20:24.79, Austin nabbed the runner-up finish, 20:41.51 with freshman Tia Tardy putting in a strong effort for her first state meet in third, 20:47.
Thayer of Boothbay crossed in 21:03 good for fourth place, while Orono got important team points with a 5-6-7 finish from Dill, Steelman, & Koffman. Stone finished 8th (21:56) with Leblanc 9th (22:00) & Phoebe Colvin Oehmig of Waynflete rounding out the top 10 (22:02)
In the team race, Orono coming off an upset of Washburn at the EM Regional the week before by 6 points, held the lead through 3 runners with an edge of 18-20. Washburn's Carmen Bragg & Mackenzie Worcester worked there way up to 11th & 12th place by the finish.
Orono's Olivia Fandel crossed the line in 17th (22:21) with Washburn's Emilia Churchill one spot back in 18th (22:22). It would come down to the 5th runners, Washburn freshman Tori Koch finished 20th, but it was Jordan Richards of Orono finishes one spot behind her in 21st to give the Red Riots the victory.
In the end it was a 48-50 score with the Orono Red Riots winning the schools first Class C XC title since 1976, which happens to be the first year girls had a state championships. The 37 year wait was well worth it.
Waynflete(107) finished 3rd, the Flyers ran without WM Regioanl champion, Sophia Canning, who had to compete in a rescheduled playoff soccer game. Monmouth Academy (131) & Boothbay (150) rounded out the top 5.
Boys Recap
The question coming into the meet wasn't if Josef Holt would win the Class C individual xc title, but by how much
Holt the top ranked school boy runner this fall opted for a conserative approach to his race, running with the leader Matt Malcolm of nYA through 2 miles before pullin away over the final mile to win his first individual xc title, running 17:00.87
The reason for the less than all-out effort? Josef has his eyes set on next week's New England Championship at Derryfield Park, NH, and then 3 weeks after that at the Footlocker Northeast qualifier.
Currently ranked #23 in the Milesplit Saucony Elite 50 rankings the senior has a best 5k time of 15:06 on the season, he will enter the New England meet as the pre-race favorite.
While Holt was doing his thing there was some solid racing going on behind him. NYA's Malcom was the race leader at 2miles as he and holt ran stride for stride
Six seconds behind then was the chase pack led by the Eastern Maine Regional Champion, Matt Toussaint of Fort Kent. Also in the chase pack was Ben Allen (Winthrop) & John Hassett (George Stevens).
Over the final mile Holt pulled away for a 15 second win (17:00) over Toussaint who clocked (17:15). Malcolm held strong in the final straight to finish 3rd (17:26) to hold off Allen (17:27). Hassett just a freshman finished 5th (17:41)
Hall-Dale's Chris Pomerleau was next in 6th (17:55), followed by James O'Neil (Orono) 17:59 in 7th. Boothbay's Benn Scully finished 8th (18:10), teammate Robert Campbell was a second behind (18:11), while Tristan Butterfield (Orono) rounded out the top ten (18:12)
The team race was an excellent one as well with Boothbay edging Orono 68-70. With a mile to go Orono had the lead over the Seahawks, who won the WM Regional title on the same course a week ago. The experience with the course paid big dividends over the final mile as Boothbay was able to move up to make up the gap.
At 2 mile Orono had 3 three runners in front of Boothbay's first runner. In the end Orono took places 7-10-13 with their top 3 while Boothbay had places 8-9-11, edge to the Seahawks 25-27. Scully & Campbell each kicked passed Tristan Butterfield in the final meters. Matt Burnham (Boothbay) would finish 19th (18:48) holding off a late push from Orono's Josh Marquis (18:50).
Through 4 runners the team score was 42-46 in favor of Boothbay. Orono would get their 5th across the line when Brian Westhovem finished 26th (19:10), but Boothbay #5 Jack Hasch was just 3 spots back in 29th (19:24).
The 2 point win gave Boothbay its first title since 2009.
George Stevens Academy placed 3rd (113) with Winthrop (130) edging Monmouth Academy (130) for 4th with the better 6th runner.
Boys Top 20 Individuals
1 Josef Holt SR Telstar 17:00.87 2 Matthew Toussaint JR Fort Kent 17:15.75 1 3 Matt Malcom JR NYA 17:26.90 2 4 Ben Allen JR Winthrop 17:27.49 3 5 John Hassett FR George Stevens 17:41.61 4 6 Chris Pomerleau JR Hall-Dale 17:55.74 5 7 James O'Neil SR Orono High School 17:59.71 6 8 Benn Scully SR Boothbay 18:10.90 7 9 Robert Campbell SR Boothbay 18:11.90 8 10 Tristan Butterfield SO Orono High School 18:12.75 9 11 Joey Paolillo FR Boothbay 18:15.96 10 12 Tucker Pierce FR Merriconeag 18:24.28 11 13 Conall Molloy SR Orono High School 18:27.35 12 14 Ridge Osgood SR Narraguagus 18:32.53 15 Samuel Ouellette JR Fort Kent 18:34.80 13 16 Dylan Wu FR Merriconeag 18:39.92 14 17 Ollie Dillon FR George Stevens 18:41.02 15 18 John LeBlanc JR NYA 18:47.09 16 19 Matt Burnham SO Boothbay 18:48.95 17 20 Derek Baker SO Washburn 18:49.25 18
Boys Top 5 Teams
1 Boothbay Region High Scho 68 7 8 10 17 26 32 48
Total Time: 1:32:52.27
Average: 18:34.46
2 Orono High School 70 6 9 12 19 24 43 51
Total Time: 1:32:40.84
Average: 18:32.17
3 George Stevens Academy 113 4 15 25 29 40 46 74
Total Time: 1:34:55.88
Average: 18:59.18
4 Winthrop High School 130 3 20 27 38 42 57 65
Total Time: 1:35:23.11
Average: 19:04.63
5 Monmouth Academy 130 21 22 23 31 33 75
Total Time: 1:35:57.53
Average: 19:11.51
Girls Top 20 Individuals
Carsyn Koch of Washburn ran to her 4th straight individual title, matching the record set by Abbey Leonardi. (Photo by Sub5.com)
1 Carsyn Koch SR Washburn 20:24.79 1 2 Hannah Austin JR NYA 20:41.51 2 3 Tia Tardy FR Mattanawcook 20:47.55 3 4 Sophia Thayer SR Boothbay 21:03.36 4 5 Kassidy Dill FR Orono High School 21:15.31 5 6 Hannah Steelman FR Orono High School 21:30.93 6 7 Lily Koffman JR Orono High School 21:54.57 7 8 Gabi Stone JR Telstar 21:56.54 9 Aly LeBlanc SO Madison High School 22:00.03 10 Phoebe Colvin-Oehmig Waynflete School 22:02.26 8 11 Carmen Bragg SR Washburn 22:04.29 9 12 Mackenzie Worcester JR Washburn 22:06.61 10 13 Rylee Warman FR Greater Houlton 22:10.56 14 Demchak Olivia JR Madison High School 22:14.04 15 Sophia Mayone Waynflete School 22:16.60 11 16 Hanna Gutow SO George Stevens 22:21.04 12 17 Olivia Fandel SO Orono High School 22:21.71 13 18 Emilia Churchill SO Washburn 22:22.64 14 19 Gail Johnson Waynflete School 22:27.07 15 20 Tori Koch FR Washburn 22:30.21 16
Girls Top 5 Teams
Orono won the girls team title in a very close race, 48-50 over defending champion Washburn (Photo by Stacey Baker)
1 Orono High School 48 5 6 7 13 17 35 51
Total Time: 1:49:33.55
Average: 21:54.71
2 Washburn High School 50 1 9 10 14 16 63 67
Total Time: 1:49:28.54
Average: 21:53.71
3 Waynflete School 107 8 11 15 20 53 60 64
Total Time: 1:54:53.29
Average: 22:58.66
4 Monmouth Academy 131 19 22 27 30 33 38 54
Total Time: 1:57:01.68
Average: 23:24.34
5 Boothbay Region High Scho 150 4 24 28 45 49 56 58
Total Time: 1:57:53.11
Average: 23:34.63