Shafer & Evans top the field at WMCS, Falmouth girls & Cape boys top teams
NYA's Hannah Austin wins girls D2 race & Matt Malcom takes the boys D2 race. Yarmouth girls & Fryeburg tops in D2
Boys Overall | Girls Overall | Boys D1 Team | Boys D2 Team | Girls D1 Team | Girls D2 Team
Photo Albums: MainetrackXC | Pauline Doane | Moosechili
Race Videos Girls Varsity | Boys Varsity | Girls JV | Boys JV
Interviews Heather Evans | Will Shafer | Sam Sewall | Eleanor Roberts | Liam Simpson
Boys Recap
The race for the boys individual title at WMC's was a good one on Friday. Leading the way at the beginning of the race was Falmouth junior Bryce Murdick, followed closely by a pair of seniors Liam Simpson (Cape) & Will Shafer (GNG). The trio would run side by side as the the covered the first in 5:15.
They were followed about 5 meters back by the chase pack led by Scott Lambert (Falmouth). Also in the pack was Patrick Carty (Fryeburg), Peter Doane (Cape) & Chandler Vincent of Freeport. With another pack back about 10 meters with Matt Malcom (NYA), Troy Cochrane (Greely), Mitch Morris (Cape), Rex Brockelman (York) & Connor Rog (Greely).
The second mile is downhill for the first half before a climb back up to the school. It was during the climb that front pack was reduced to just two runners. Simpson & Shafer started to increase the pace, with Murdick dropping back a few strides. The pace actually slowed down a bit during mile two as the leaders were around 10:35.
Moving up during mile 2 was Peter Doane to 4th with Chandler Vincent breaking away from his pack to 5th place. Lambert was 6th through 2 miles followed by Carty, Morris, Brockelman & Malcolm.
In the final mile the powerful Shafer used his speed to push through the hills to break away from Simpson with around 800m to go. Shafer would go on the cross the line first with a fine 16:26 clocking, good for 3rd best all-time on the course. Following 8 seconds later was Simpson, his time 16:34. A year ago on the same course Shafer ran 17:30, and just 2 week ago finished 7 seconds behind Simpson at FOC. Simpson who was 4th a year ago improved 29 seconds.
Doane increased his pace in the final mile to finish 3rd and a sub 17 clocking, 16:52. Next was Murdick (17:08) in 4th with a fast closing Vincent in 5th (17:11). Morris of Cape sprinted his way to 6th (17:16) with Lamber (17:17), & Malcolm (17:21) in 8th.
Malcolm would be the first D2 runner across the line as he edged Patrick Carty (Fryeburg) by just 1 second. Rex Brockelman of York rounded out the top 10 finishers with a 17:33 effort.
In the D1 boys race, Cape Elizabeth won their first WMC title since 2006, the capers were led by a 2-3-6 finish up front as they tallied 38 points. The Capers were still shorthanded as #3 runner Will Britton is just returning from an injury. Falmouth last year's champion had a strong day despite missing #4 runner Josh Simensky, The Yachtsmen had 53 points for the runner-up finish.
In D2, Fryeburg Academy was the top team with all 5 scorers in the top 10. They were 10 points 32-42 better than Merriconeag
Boys Top 10 finishers-picture by Bill Sandreuter
Boys Top 15 finishers
1 1 127 Will Shafer 1 GNG 16:26
2 2 375 Liam Simpson 1 Cape 16:34
3 3 376 Peter Doane 1 Cape 16:52
4 4 65 Bryce Murdick 1 Falmouth 17:08
5 5 164 Chandler Vincent 1 Freeport 17:11
6 6 377 Mitch Morris 1 Cape 17:16
7 7 63 Scott Lambert 1 Falmouth 17:17
8 8 213 Matt Malcom 2 NYA 17:21
9 9 499 Patrick Carty 2 Fryeburg 17:22
10 10 322 Rex Brockelman 1 York 17:33
11 11 77 Sean Soucy 1 Falmouth 17:47
12 12 378 Kyle Kennedy 1 Cape 17:48
13 13 488 Tucker Pierce 2 Merriconeag 17:49
14 14 484 Zach Neveu 2 Merriconeag 17:51
15 15 6 Troy Cochrane 1 Greely 17:55
Girls Recap
The girls featured a trio at the front of the race similiar to the boys. Falmouth's Madeline Roberts had the early pacing duties as senior Heather Evans (York ) & junior Hannah Austin (NYA) were running step for step with eachother. Each was considered an individual title threat in our WMC preview.
They only have a few meters over the chase pack which was led by freshman Malia Cryan (York), with another freshman Mira Wyman (Falmouth) & Caitlin Teare (Yarmouth) as they got closer to mile 1.
During the uphill climb in mile 2, Evans asserted herself and pulled away from Austin & Roberts to create a 9-10 second gap at the 2 mile mark. Austin using her quick turnover moved a few strides ahead of Roberts as they approached the hardest mile on the course.
Cryan was alone in 4th at the 2 mile, 5 seconds back in 5th was Sydney Ambrose of Freeport, with Wyman in 7th, Teare 8th & Elly Bengtsson moving up all the way to 9th. Antoinette Lambert rounding out the top 10.
The final mile would see Evans extend her lead to 12 seconds as she crossed the line first in 20:21. A year ago she finished 3rd (20:37). Austin closed well to hold on to 2nd place, and the top D2 runner in the field. Her finishing time was 20:33, much better than her 21:03 from a year ago. Roberts of Falmouth led her team with a 3rd place finish, 20:47 as she held off a fast closing Ambrose of Freeport by 4 seconds.
Vishva Nalamalapu had one of the best final miles in the field as she moved from 12 at the 2 mile all the way up to 5th overall in the last mile. Bengtsson moved up 3 more spot over the final mile to 6th place (21:06), Lambert moved 3 spots as well to finish 7th (21:12). Cryan suffered a bit from her fast early pace as she dropped back to 8th, but still had the top freshman finish in the field. Caitlin Teare finished 9th while Wyman claimed the 10th spot (21:19)
In D1, Falmouth showed they are ready to take on their Class A foes next week in Western A regional with a dominating performance to win the WMC title. Falmouth scored just 31 points, with a 2-4-6-8-11 finish. Freeport was the top Class B team, the Falcons were motivated to show they will be threat the next two weeks, they scored 51. Greely even without #1 runner Kirstin Sandreuter finished 3rd with 85. York & Cape tied for 4th place.
In D2 Yarmouth blew away the field with 28 points, Class C Merriconeag was the runner-up with 84 points. Yarmouth finished 2-4-6-7-8 for their scoring 5. In the combined scoring the Clippers were the 4th best team.
Girls Top 15 finishers
1 1 345 Heather Evans 1 York 20:21
2 2 227 Hannah Austin 2 NYA 20:33
3 3 105 Madeline Roberts 1 Falmouth 20:47
4 4 140 Sydney Ambrose 1 Freeport 20:51
5 5 100 Vishva Nalamalapu 1 Falmouth 20:59
6 6 141 Elly Bengtsson 1 Freeport 21:06
7 7 95 Antoinette Lambert 1 Falmouth 21:12
8 8 342 Malia Cryan 1 York 21:15
9 9 436 Caitlin Teare 2 Yarmouth 21:18
10 10 118 Mira Wyman 1 Falmouth 21:19
11 11 489 Anna Lastra 2 Fryeburg 21:23
12 12 404 Rhoen Fiutak 1 Cape Elizabeth 21:27
13 13 145 Bethanie Knighton 1 Freeport 21:28
14 14 93 Alexa Hoffman 1 Falmouth 21:30
15 15 399 Sam Feenstra 1 Cape Elizabeth 21:32