Ben Allen of Winthrop & Hannah Austin of NYA are the best of Western Maine Class C
Boothbay boys pull it out with the better 6th runner over Merriconeag, while Waynflete girls cruise to another WM regional title
Photos: Girls Race | Boys Race | Girls Awards | Boys Awards
Race Videos: Boys Race | Girls Race
Interviews: Ben Allen | Hannah Austin | Matt Malcolm | Olivia Skillings | Tucker Pierce
With the clouds and rain gone, and the return of the sun it turned out to be a great day for racing at Twin Brook for the Western Maine Class C Regional XC Championships as teams tried to punch their ticket to Belfast for the State Championship next week.
The boys led things off, and it was an excellent individual race up front, and an even better team race.
The expected players, Ben Allen of Winthrop, Matt Malcolm of NYA & Tucker Pierce of Merriconeag along with Joey Paolillo from Boothbay pushed the pace from the gun, with the sophomores Paolillo & Pierce doing the heavy lifting early on in the first 800m of the race.
At the mile mark, Allen the race favorite coming into the meet had taken up pacing duties. He had plenty of company with Malcom, Paolillo & Pierce and Luke Thombs of Monmouth Academy
It was still anyones race at the 2 mile mark as Allen continued to set the pace with Malcom & Pierce running stride for stride with him, the group was 11:14. Paolillo & Thombs were the chase pack back about 15m.
In the final mile using the downhills to his advantage Allen was able to pull away for the victory, his final time was 17:19.64. Malcom hung tough to finish 10 seconds back (17:29.08) as the runner-up. Pierce was the only other runner in the field to crack 18 minutes as he finished third with a 17:42.52. Thombs held off Paolillo as he did in last week's MVC Championship, 18:00.27 to 18:04.88
A pair of brothers from Merriconeag, Zach Neveu & Nick Neveu were 6th & 7th. Waynflete's Wilson Moore had a strong race to place 8th, he was followed by the Boothbay duo of Kyle Ames & Kyler Carty to round out the top 10.
The team race was a dead heat through five runners as Boothbay, the defending champions & Merriconeag each had 51 points. The deciding factor for the Seahawks was their depth as Kyle Alamo's 20th place finish gave them the edge in the tie-breaker.
Boothbay had runners step up to repeat most notabaly was Kyler Carty who was only 9th at last week's MVC Championship, but 10th here today. Also Matt Burnham who ran 5th for the Seahwaks last week and placed 13th, moved up to the 4th spot today with his 14th place finish.
Winthrop (89) placed third, they will be accompanied to the state meet by Waynflete, North Yarmouth Academy, & Madison
The girls race looked similiar to the boys race in the early stages with a pack of three setting the pace. Waynflete's Phoebe Colvin-Oehmig pushed the early pace and she was joined by freshman Olivia Skilings of Merriconeag & senior Hannah Austin of NYA.
At the mile, Colvin-Oehmig was leading the way, followed closely by Austin & Skillings as they powered up the hill together. There was a big gap between the leaders and the chase pack headed up by Ellie Chidsey of Waynflete. In the chase pack was also Samantha Pierce & Fiona Ahearne of Merriconeag & Gail Johnson of Waynflete
After the mile Austin threw in a surge to try to break the field, and it worked. When the runners return from the outer B loop, Austin had seized the lead. Skillings had pulled away for second. Colvin was still in third but the chase pack was on her heels.
Austin kept the gas pedal down, and was never challenged again. The senior would go on to win by 25 seconds with her winning effort of 20:44. Skillings would stay strong over the last mile to finish as the runner-up, 21:09. A strong last mile by Ellie Chidsey of Waynflete got her all the way up to third (21:14). Pierce of Merriconeag moved up as well to 4th (21:33). Colvin the early race leader rounded out the top 5 (21:44).
Waynflete behind four runners in the top nine easily repeated as Western Maine Regional champions with 39 points. Merriconeag put more hardware in the schools trophy case with a runner-up finish, they tallied 66 points. North Yarmouth Academy had a strong day to finish third with 120, joining them in the state meet will be St Dominic's, Monmouth Academy, Telstar & Boothbay.
Top 30 Girls Individual Qualify for the state meet
1 Hannah Austin SR NYA 20:44.23 1 2 Olivia Skillings FR Merriconeag 21:09.54 2 3 Ellie Chidsey SO Waynflete school 21:14.41 3 4 Samantha Pierce SR Merriconeag 21:33.10 4 5 Phoebe Colvin-Oehmig SR Waynflete school 21:44.02 5 6 Fiona Ahearne JR Merriconeag 21:50.78 6 7 Gail Johnson JR Waynflete school 22:05.21 7 8 Emma Wilson SR Hall-Dale 22:20.42 8 9 Sophie Mayone SO Waynflete school 22:20.78 9 10 Gabi Stone SR Telstar High School 22:24.97 10 11 Olivia Demchak SR Madison High School 22:33.43 12 Ella Brown SO St. Dominic Academy 22:46.48 11 13 Louise Ahearne FR Merriconeag 22:52.42 12 14 Amelia Lorrey SO Traip Academy 22:58.45 13 15 Sydney Sirois SO St. Dominic Academy 23:01.89 14 16 Abby Pipkin Waynflete school 23:14.01 15 17 Emilee Fortier 9 Carrabec High Sc 23:14.26 16 18 Jessica Conant JR Dirigo High School 23:18.06 17 19 Megan Morrison JR Dirigo High School 23:18.79 18 20 Kaitlyn Brown JR Telstar High School 23:19.38 19 21 Emily Carney SR St. Dominic Academy 23:21.05 20 22 Jordyn Mann SR Monmouth Academy 23:25.90 21 23 Sarah Austin SO NYA 23:28.27 22 24 Hannah Morley JR Boothbay 23:32.32 23 25 Leeza Kopaeva FR Waynflete school 23:36.60 24 26 Carey Knowles SR Monmouth Academy 23:38.86 25 27 Ashleigh Hartford SR Monmouth Academy 23:45.81 26 28 Jada Choate JR Winthrop 23:45.82 27 29 Kiera Kenneally McAuley 23:48.29 28 30 Sarah Cooper JR NYA 23:54.02 29
Top 7 Girls team advance to the state meet
1 Waynflete school 39 3 5 7 9 15 24 39
Total Time: 1:50:38.43
Average: 22:07.69
2 Merriconeag Waldorf Schoo 66 2 4 6 12 42 59 63
Total Time: 1:52:25.29
Average: 22:29.06
3 North Yarmouth Academy 120 1 22 29 31 37 38 48
Total Time: 1:57:00.71
Average: 23:24.15
4 St. Dominic Academy 135 11 14 20 44 46 47 66
Total Time: 1:59:37.89
Average: 23:55.58
5 Monmouth Academy 137 21 25 26 30 35 40 54
Total Time: 1:59:30.78
Average: 23:54.16
6 Telstar High School 167 10 19 36 50 52
Total Time: 2:01:28.83
Average: 24:17.77
7 Boothay Region High Schoo 216 23 32 33 60 68 76
Total Time: 2:06:22.79
Average: 25:16.56
Top 30 Boys Individual Qualify for the state meet
1 Ben Allen SR Winthrop 17:19.64 1 2 Matthew Malcom SR NYA 17:29.08 2 3 Tucker Pierce SO Merriconeag 17:42.52 3 4 Luke Thombs JR Monmouth Academy 18:00.27 5 Joey Paolillo SO Boothbay 18:04.88 4 6 Zach Neveu SR Merriconeag 18:06.19 5 7 Nick Neveu FR Merriconeag 18:07.54 6 8 Wilson Moore SO Waynflete school 18:22.33 7 9 Kyle Ames FR Boothbay 18:30.59 8 10 Kyler Carty SR Boothbay 18:31.68 9 11 Raymond Miller SR Madison High School 18:32.94 10 12 Jacob Hickey SO Winthrop 18:41.28 11 13 Haley Cunningham SR NYA 18:44.74 12 14 Matt Burnham JR Boothbay 18:48.17 13 15 Jacob Christiansen SO Traip Academy 18:48.51 14 16 Dylan Wu SO Merriconeag 18:55.12 15 17 Nick Menice JR Monmouth Academy 18:56.79 18 Chris Pomerleau SR Hall-Dale 18:57.27 16 19 Trystan Mercier SR Boothbay 18:59.27 17 20 Diego Villamarin JR St. Dominic Academy 19:05.78 18 21 Tristan Rich SR Madison High School 19:11.35 19 22 Kyle Alamo SR Boothbay 19:13.59 20 23 Blake Rothwell FR Telstar High School 19:15.71 24 Daniel Drommond JR Boothbay 19:19.87 21 25 Lars Gundersen SR Merriconeag 19:23.22 22 26 Keenan Martin Dirigo High School 19:26.39 23 27 Caleb Fortin SO Winthrop 19:33.88 24 28 Samuel Harper SR Madison High School 19:36.55 25 29 Isaac Johnson SR Winthrop 19:37.48 26 30 Nick Charest SR Winthrop 19:45.33 27
Boys top 6 teams advance to state meet
1 Boothay Region High Schoo 51 4 8 9 13 17 20 21
Total Time: 1:32:54.59
Average: 18:34.92
2 Merriconeag Waldorf Schoo 51 3 5 6 15 22 35 39
Total Time: 1:32:14.59
Average: 18:26.92
3 Winthrop High School 89 1 11 24 26 27 29 48
Total Time: 1:34:57.61
Average: 18:59.53
4 Waynflete school 146 7 30 33 34 42 44 55
Total Time: 1:39:24.81
Average: 19:52.97
5 North Yarmouth Academy 149 2 12 36 49 50 56 60
Total Time: 1:39:55.78
Average: 19:59.16
6 Madison High School 163 10 19 25 45 64 68 73
Total Time: 1:42:17.78
Average: 20:27.56