Girls Preview
Three female runners return for a second High School Mile after running in the inaugural race in 2016. They join fourteen others to bring the field to seventeen.
Emily Carty, a senior at Fryeburg Academy, took the 3rd spot in last year's race with a time of 5:44. Carty's qualifying mark this year is 5:25. In the 2016 cross-country season Emily placed 7th in both the Class B State meet and the Southern Maine regional meet. The 5:25 in the 1600 gives her the 6th best qualifying time.
Emily Carty, Senior, Fryeburg Academy
Also returning for a second year are Megan Alberding, a
junior at NYA, and Lauren Morrison from Mattanawcook Academy. Alberding ran a
5:41 indoor mile and placed 6th in the 2016 Class C Indoor State Meet;
she also took 12th in the 2015 State Class C Cross Country
Championship. Morrison, a rising junior, won the 2016 PVC Freshman Championship
in the 800 and competed in the State Class C meet in that event.
Megan Alberding, Junior, NYA
Lauren Morrison, Junior, Mattanawcook Academy
The top five seeds are Carolyn Todd (5:16),
Lily Horne (5:18), Miranda Durcan (5:19), and Anna Slager (5:20) and Iris KItchen (5:20).
Todd, heading into 11th grade at Greely, finished 4th in
the 2017 State Class B 1600 Championship after taking the second spot her
freshman year. In the indoor season she also notched 4th in the mile
and took a podium spot in the two mile. In the 2016 cross-country season she
took the 4th spot in the state meet leading the Rangers to the team
title.
Carolyn Todd, Junior Greely
Junior Lily Horne, of Freeport, took 7th in Class B State Championship Meet this spring. During the 2016 cross-country season Horne was 5th in the Class B regional meet and followed that with a 14th place finish at states.
Miranda Durcan, a sophomore, runs the 800 and 1600 for Kennebunk. As a freshman this past spring she finished 8th in the Class B 1600.
Rounding out the top five are two Gorham Rams. Senior Anna Slager is a three time state champion. As a freshman, Slager took first in the Class A 1600, and as a sophomore claimed the top spots in both the State Cross Country Championship and the 2016 indoor mile. This June Slager took 2nd in the 3200 at the State A meet at Massabesic.
Sophomore Iris Kitchen, of Gorham, was also
on the podium after the 3200 this spring; she took 6th in the State
A meet. In the 2016 Cross-Country Championship Kitchen finished 12th
in Class A following a 6th place finish at the regional meet. Both
Kitchen and Slager are listed with qualifying times of 5:20
Gorham runners Anna Slager, Senior, and Iris Kitchen, Sophomore
As with Gorham, two Brunswick Dragons are entered. Sophomore Micaela Ashby, and
senior Isabella Pols, who finished third and fourth respectively to lead
Brunswick to the Northern Maine Class A Cross Country Championship this past
fall, are entered for the first time.
Isabella Pols, Senior, Brunswick
Pols's qualifying time of 5:27 came at the 2017 Maine Class A State
Championship where she won her heat in the 1600 and took 5th
overall. Ashby's 5:32 1600 time garnered her a 4th place spot at the
2017 KVAC Championship meet this May. Both runners had top twenty finishes at
the 2016 Maine Class A Cross Country Championships with Pols taking 13th
and Ashby 17th.
Micaela Ashby, Sophomore, Brunswick
Jillian Richardson took the final ribbon in the 1600 at the State Class A meet for 2017 as
her 5.30 got her the 7th spot. The junior from Edward Little is the
KVAC Champion in the 3200 and placed 19th in the State Class A
Cross-Country Championship for 2016 after a 6th place finish at
regionals.
Jillian Richardson, Junior, Edward Little
Sophomore Hailey Applebee of Windham put up a personal best
of 5:31.97 at the Class A State meet this spring and just missed a spot on the
podium with an 8th place finish. Applebee scored well for the Eagles
during cross country and finished 8th in both the Class A Championship
and the Southern Maine regionals.
Hailey Applebee, Sophomore, Windham
Leia Dorais of Biddeford took 5th in the mile for the Tigers during
the State Indoor Championship at USM this February; the senior's best time is
5:31. Dorais will likely lead the Biddeford cross-country squad this coming
fall as she finished 12th in the Class A Southern Maine regional
meet in 2016.
Olivia Skillings, placed 3rd in the 1600 and 5th in the
3200 at Maine Class C Championship for the Maine Coast Waldorf School. The
rising senior also runs cross-country and finished 4th in the Class
C meet this past fall.
Running in her hometown of Cape Elizabeth is junior Camilla Grosso. In the 2016 Class B cross-country championship Grosso finished 13th. Her qualifying mark of 5:34 came indoors during the 2017 season.
Camille Grosso, sophomore, Cape Elizabeth
Placing in state championships twice in the 400 was Poland's Samantha Holmes. Homes took the 7th spot in the class B meets indoors and outdoors, coming in just a shade over a minute. Samantha has also notched a top 20 finish in the State XC championship when she took 16th place in 2015.
Most of these Maine runners are acquainted in one way or another. Some compete
against each other regularly, some see each other at the big meets, some have
spent time at camp together, and most are connected in some way. The unknown in
the race is Ashley Irby from the Saltus Grammar School in Hamilton Bermuda who
shows a qualifying time of 5:25 achieved in the U-16 division of the Front Street
Mile, a companion race to the January Bermuda Marathon.
Ashley Irby, center, Saltus School, Hamilton Bermuda