Holt-Andrews cruises, Canning spot on, Boothbay boys dominate, while Waynflete girls impressive
Photos: Awards | Boys Race | Girls Race | Moosechili
Race Video: Boys Race | Girls Race
Interviews: Sophia Canning | Hannah Austin | Sophia Thayer | Josef Holt | Ben Allen | Matt Malcolm
Girls Individual
Class C XC always brings it's surprises, often times at the smaller schools athletes will play soccer and run xc, so when the championship season rolls around the landscape can change with a few of these cross-over athletes.
Waynflete senior Sophia Canning is one of those athletes, canning running in only her second xc race of the year had a great duel with NYA junior Hannah Austin. The duo quickly seperated themselves from the rest of the pack and ran stride for stride with eachother for the first 2.5 miles of the course. Despite the inexperience Canning showed the poise of an experienced racer as she finished strong over the last 1/2 mile to take the win. Sophia's winning time was 20:37.55 just 2 seconds in front of the runner-up Austin 20:39.67.
Sophia Thayer of Boothbay was next across the line in 3rd, she covered the 3.1 mile course in 21:16.95. Hall-Dale's Emma Wilson ran in 4th for most of race, her finishing time was 21:54. Telstar's Gabi Stone closed well over the final mile to finish 5th (21:57).
The Madison duo of Olivia Demchak & Aly Leblanc ran with eachother for the entire race, and the strategy paid off as they went 6-7, running 22:09 & 22:14 respectively. Winthrop's Molly Kieltyka finished 8th, 22:21 with Samantha Pierce of Merriconeag moving up several spots in the mile to 9th. Rounding out the top 10 was Sophia Mayone of Waynflete 22:26.
Team
The Flyers of Waynflete put on a dominating performance that saw they place all 5 scoring runners in the top 15 as they scored 37 points, the margin of victory over the runner-up Boothbay was 64 points. Waynflete was led by the individual win of Sophia Canning, and then a 10-11-12 finish by Sophia Mayone, Phoebe Colvin Oehmig, & Gail Johnson, anf then a 15th place effort from Ellie Chidsey. The Seahwaks of Boothbay held off a strong challenge from Monmouth Academy who finished just 2 points back. St Dom's also punched there ticket to the state in 4th (120), with Merriconeag Waldorf (124) 5th. NYA got the last spot to the state meet in 6th.
Boys Individual
Telstar's Josef Holt has the fastest 5k time by any Maine high school runner this fall (15:06) so being the favorite to repeat as the WM Class C champion was a no brainer. Holt put the spikes aside and opted for racing flats as the course was bone dry. As soon as the gun went off he established himself at the front of the pack, and never looked back. The senior covered the first mile in 5:04, he would keep his metronic stride going over the final 2 miles as he covered ground with any glimpse of hurt.
Josef's winning time of 15:54 was the only time under 16 minutes on the day, it was 21 seconds faster than anyone's effort on the day. It was clear that Holt wasn't going all out today, and his body language immediately after the race would back that up, nothing but a big smile.
The race for second place was an excellent one between a pair of juniors, Matt Malcolm (NYA) & Ben Allen Winthrop. Malcolm pushed the pace with Allen tagging on to his back like glue. Matt couldn't get away from Allen, and as the made the hairpin turn for home, Ben found another gear. Allen would sprint home to finish 2nd with a 17:13 effort, Malcolm was just a few strides back in 17:15.
Tucker Pierce of Merriconeag ran a strong race to place 4th (17:44) just a second in front of 5th place finisher, Chris Pomerleau of Hall-Dale (17:45).
Benn Scully of Boothbay lead the Seahawks in 6th (17:51) with Hall-Dale's James McAuliffe coming across in 7th (17:55).
Zac Neveu of Merriconeag was 8th (17:57.52) to hold off hard charging Joey Paolillo, a freshman from Boothbay (17:57.944). Finishing in 10th was another Seahawk as Jack Hasch ran 18:24.
Team
The pre-meet favorites to win the Western Class C title was Boothbay. The Seahwaks backed that title up with a dominating performance, Boothbay placed 5 runners in the top 16 to score 47 points. Benn Scully led the way for Boothbay with a 5th place finish, his teammates packed in behind him as they had a 1-5 spread was 56 seconds.
Merriconeag Waldorf was the regional runner-up as they held off Monmouth Academy 97-98. Merriconeag had 3 in the top 12 to pace them while Monmouth's had a tight pack of 43 seconds with their first runner finishing 17th. Winthrop was 4th (100), with Hall-Dale (120) & NYA (124) also advancing to the state meet.