Hendricks & Applebee Race to Wins at Lake Region Invitational
Girls Results | Boys Results | Photos | Boys Race Video | Girls Race Video | Interviews
Two new course records were set on Saturday as runners faced a new course for the 2017 Lake Region Invitational because of the resurfacing on the track.
First up was the girls race which featured athletes from Windham, Cheverus, Poland, Gray New Gloucester, St Dominic Academy, & host Lake Region.
Sophomore Hailey Applebee of Windham set the pace from the gun as she pulled away from the field of 46 runners. She covered the 2.95 mile course in 19:05 to take first place by 59 seconds over the runner-up Alexandra Hammerton of St Dominic Academy. Applebee's finish improved on her third place effort from a year ago.
"I'm excited for how our team is going to do this year, we've all been working really hard and I think that we can go to states this year." Applebee said of her outlook on the season
Hammerton of St Doms moved her way through the field into second place once coming out of the woods. Sporting a yellow pair of shades she looked relaxed and in control of her race. She crossed the finish at 20:04.
The pair of Ashley Turner & Daniella Niedermeyer from Cheverus finished well to earn third & fourth place overall. They clocked 20:33 & 20:35 respectably.
Poland's Olivia Ouellette rounded out the top five with a 20:43 effort.
Cheverus with five of the first eight finishers was the easy team winner with a tally of 26 points, and more impressively just an 18 second spread for the top five runners. Windham finished as the the runner-up with 57 points they were followed by St Dominic Academy with 72.
Girls Top 10 Finishers
1 Hailey Applebee 10 Windham High School 19:05.00 1 2 Alexandra Hammerton 11 St. Dominic Regional 20:04.00 2 3 Ashley Turner 12 Cheverus High School 20:33.00 3 4 Daniella Niedermeyer Cheverus High School 20:35.00 4 5 Olivia Ouellette 10 Poland Regional High 20:43.00 5 6 Rosie Train 11 Cheverus High School 20:49.00 6 6 MacKenzie Turner Cheverus High School 20:49.00 5 8 Hannah Galeucia 11 Cheverus High School 20:51.00 8 9 Samantha Halmos 12 Poland Regional High 20:53.00 9 10 Morgan Colangelo 11 Windham High School 21:04.00 10
On the boys side the race for first place was never in doubt for Sacopee Valley senior Troy Hendricks who took the lead shortly after the start and never was challenged as he clocked 16:17 over the 2.95 mile course. Hendricks who figures to contend for the Class C individual title this fall got his season off to a strong start as he won a xc race for the first time in my career.
Hendricks experienced some pre-meet jitters, "My stomach was a bit turned up, but once I started it was nice." but he didn't let that stop him, "I opened up and won for the first time, it was a confidence booster for the season."
Behind Hendricks St Dominic Academy's Mark D'Alessandro had a strong race as he went out with the pack before pulling into second half way through. He would complete the course in 17:01, his time was 19 seconds faster than a year ago on a longer course.
Cheverus freshman Donald Mahoney had a strong debut for the Stags as he finished third (17:23) holding off a fast closing Jeff McCubrey of Lake Region (17:24).
Rounding out the top was Phineas Underwood of Cheverus in 17:27.
Teamwise Cheverus bested the field with just 41 points, which was 33 points better than runner-up Lake Region. For Lake Region that is the best team finish in recent memory. Poland finished third with 81.