Caribou's Sheehan, Michaud primed for strong season

CARIBOU — Aroostook County is known for many things.
Hundreds of miles of forests. Picturesque views. Delectable potatoes, and friendly folks.
But one thing the County has produced over the year is fine athletes, especially distance runners, among them Sam Sheehan, Jeff Alden and Hannah Saunders.
What do they all have in common? They donned the maroon-and-yellow of Caribou High School, which boasts a fine tradition in the sport of cross-country.
The Vikings are primed for yet another strong campaign on the trails of Eastern Maine this fall, especially juniors Mary-Jo Sheehan and Dayna Michaud, who will be counted upon to lead coach Thomas Beckum’s girls squad.
Sheehan has modest goals for the 2009 campaign.
“I want to at least place in the top 5 [at Class B regionals], and kind of work my way up from there,” commented Sheehan before a practice last week.
Sheehan, the younger sister of former Caribou star Sam Sheehan, now running at Brown University, certainly put in the necessary work while not over-training.
“I would run during the summer, then take a couple days off, then get back with a hard mileage day,” explained Sheehan.
Sheehan and Somers got together for quite a few training runs over the summer, a few of which took place at teammate Laura Collins’ camp on Madawaska Lake in the St. John Valley.
“We would tube and then we would run there, it was kind of fun,” said Sheehan, who added the trails in the area are mostly flat.
Somers added that she and Sheehan would train on ATV trails and other dirt trails throughout the area, occasionally seeing some wildlife.
“We saw a bear the other day,” said Somers.
Michaud and Sheehan were running in nearby Perham, between Caribou and Washburn, when they saw the big black bear, and stopped running.
That aside, the two friends and teammates are blessed to have such adequate training facilities at Caribou High, which has well-groomed ski trails that also make up the Vikings’ cross-country course.
“We’re pretty lucky to have such good facilities, and people keep them groomed pretty well,” Michaud said.
Sheehan, who logged training weeks of 30 to 40 miles over the summer, does not feel any family pressure of being Sam Sheehan’s younger sister.
In fact, Mary Jo has a leg up on her brother in one department, at least according to Caribou boys coach Roy Alden.
“I remember my freshman year Mr. Alden always said I had much better running form than Sam,” Sheehan said.
She admitted that after telling Sam, he simply shrugged it off.
Sheehan and Michaud should both be in the mix in what promises to be a wide-open individual battle in Eastern Maine Class B, along with Kim Spencer and Sarah Dickens of John Bapst, reigning champion Brianne Dunn of Ellsworth, Alecia Palmer of Presque Isle and Dacie Manion of Old Town.
Even though Michaud has aspirations of a strong individual campaign, she is focused on other things.
“I think we’ll do pretty good. I want to make it to New Englands [as a team]. I think we can do it,” she said.
They’ll certainly give Caribou the 1-2 punch needed to compete with the likes of John Bapst, MDI and Ellsworth this fall, a punch the Vikings will need up front now that Hannah Saunders has graduated.
But Michaud feels that there are plenty of young guns ready to step up.
“We have quite a few freshmen coming up and they’re pretty good, so they’ll have big shoes to fill with Hannah being gone,” said Michaud.
Sheehan barely missed qualifying for New Englands as a freshman in 2007, and she has visions of reaching that plateau.
“I really hope so, that’d be really fun,” she said.  I remember my freshman year I didn’t get to race, I think I was a couple spots off qualifying but still went to cheer on Hannah.”
Caribou was scheduled to compete in the MDI Relays last weekend, but torrential rains and winds cancelled that meet.
The Vikings will open their season Saturday at the Ellsworth Invitational.