Oct 19, 2014

Willingham & Guadalupi rule the KVAC

Hampden Academy sweeps Class A titles, while Maranacook takes the boys B title & Morse wins the girls in an upset

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Check out our brief recaps below, and check back later for complete analysis of the races.

"I was very nervous at the start" said eventual KVAC Class A champion Aaron Willingham who pushed the pace right from the opening gun. The senior from Mt Blue regarded as one of the top runners in the entire state went out in the lead as everyone has grown accustomed to seeing

Folliwing Willingham and eventual running right up to his shoulder was the Lewison duo of Osman Doorow & Isaiah Harris "I was scared," Aaron said when he saw Osman's right on his shoulder.

From there Willingham would push the pace even more and would never be challenged again. The senior would increase his lead throughout the race before crossing in a new course record time of 16:56. It would be another 16 seconds before his teammate Dan Lesko would finish.

Lesko capped off a fine performance for the runner-up finish running a personal best on the course by eight seconds. The senior used a different race strategy today

"I held back a little in the begnning", Lesko said "I can't go out as fast as Aaron, so I tried something different".

The new strategy paid dividends as Dan was able to move past the rest of the talented field on the hills, and was actually closing the gap to Willingham over the final mile.

Paul Casavant of Hampden Academy moved up throughout the race eventually finishing third with a strong 17:29 effort. Casavnt like Lesko held back a bit in the beginning of the race.

"I didn't want to brun myself out", the rising sophomore said after the race.

In fourth place was Harrison Knowlton of Class B leavitt, while the KVAC Championship is run as one big race, the acoring is broken down by Class. As a result Knowlton was easily the Class B champion with his time of 17:34, his time was an impressive 43 seconds in front of the next Class B finisher. Harrison who a year ago was 5th in the B race with a 18:06 showed what dilligent training can do. "I ran 50 miles a week over the summer in preparation for the season"

Hampden Academy's Caleb Lord rounded out the top 5 boys finishers.

Waterville's Chris Cote held off a hard charging Caleb Love-Webb of Camden Hills, 18:17 to 18:21 to finish as the Class B runner-up.

Hampden Academy with two runners in the top 4 in the Class A race had the jump on the rest of the teams. Besides the low sticks up front the got a (13th) place finish from Will Webb, a (15th) from Ryan Cole & (18th) Justin St. Peter, in the end they total for the Broncos was 53 points, good for a 22 point win over Mt Blue. The Cougars finished with 73, while Messalonskee 91 was third.

In the Class B team race Maranacook held on for a 87-91 win over Camden Hills. The Black Bears were led by the 4th place finish from Ethan Harriman but it was the the pack of John Parent, Luca Deangelis, & Colby Watts that finished 14th-16th that was important. Camden Hills put in a valient effort, the team's top four is composed of a sophomore & three freshman, certainly a team to watch out for in the future.

Home field advantage helped Cony sophomore Anne Guadalupi, "I knew when to push, up the hills and then on the downhill sections," said the race winner. Guadalupi put it all together to pull away with a half-mile to go to earn the victory with a 20:30, her effort put her 15 seconds up on second place.

Coming into race "I just wanted stay with the lead group today" Guadalupi said post race, "I didn't want to go out to fast and die off". The new strategy worked to her advantage as she looked strong coming up the final hill into the finish

The effort by Anne was a personal best on her home course moving her to sixth fastest in course history. By winning today Guadalupi has put herself back into the Class A individual state champion picture, she avenged an off day at the Festival of Champions.

"I didn't have the best day at FOC, but this is a confidence boost for the next two weeks", Guadalupi said post race.

Hampden Academy's Elizabeth Labun had a strong to finish as the Class A runner-up, the senior who placed fourth in the race last year, was in the lead pack from the beginning and just stayed there until the end.

Labun is looking ahead to Regional & State meets after her performance today, "I'm really excited for the next two meets after running a pr on this course today".

Tessa Cassidy of Brunswick was the third place finisher running 21:07.40, she was followed by freshman Katherine Leckbee of Mt Ararat who had a breakthrough performance with her 21:12.

Hannah Despres of Maranacook was the top finisher in the Class B meet. Despres & Lauren Brown of Waterville had a back and forth battle throughout the race. Brown went out strong early with Despres running one spot back.

Despres didn't panic though "I find that if I wait until after the two big hills to make my move on this course, I'm able to keep on pushing for the rest of the race." That plan worked wellas Hannah was able to pull ahead to finish 10 seconds in front of Brown.

"I knew it was going to get hard in the second & third miles, so I wanted to get out fast on the flat parts." Brown said of her race "It wasn't as well as I have been running, but I'm pleased with how I ran today."

The two won't face off in the Regional meet as Despres will run in the Western race while Brown will be in the Eastern race.

In the Class A team race, Hampden Academy pulled off a mild upset of pre-race favorite Brunswick. Hampden has three runners in the top nine paced by Elizabeth Labun second place finish, while Brunswick had an even better top three as the Dragons had three in the top 6. It came down to the 4th & 5th runners, Hampden's Bryanna Parker came up big in 16th place to give the Broncos the edge. Lewiston finished third.

Maranacook came in as the favorites in the Class B meet, but it was the Shipbuilders of Morse who came away with the hardware. Morse edged Maranacook 54-61 for the title, leading the way for Morse was Ruth Nadeau (3rd place), but they had 3 others in the top 13 to give them the edge. Camden Hills finished third with 86.

Class A Top 10

  1 Aaron Willingham          SR Mt Blue                 5:27.2    16:56.5    1
  2 Dan Lesko                 SR Mt Blue                 5:32.5    17:12.9    2
  3 Paul Casavant             SO Hampden Academy         5:37.8    17:29.3    3
  4 Caleb Lord                SR Hampden Academy         5:40.3    17:37.1    4
  5 Isaiah Harris             SR Lewiston                5:43.7    17:47.8    5
  6 Osman Doorow              JR Lewiston                5:47.6    17:59.9    6
  7 Owen Concaugh             SO Messalonskee            5:48.7    18:03.3    7
  8 Andrew Levesque           JR Cony High School        5:57.1    18:29.5    8
  9 Josh Donnelly             SR Brewer High School      5:57.6    18:31.0    9
 10 Matt Gott                 SR Mt. Ararat              5:58.8    18:34.7   10

Class A Boys Top 3 Teams

  1 Hampden Academy              53    3    4   13   15   18   20   23
      Total Time:  1:31:54.70
         Average:    18:22.94
   2 Mt. Blue High School         75    1    2   16   25   31   36   73
      Total Time:  1:32:09.80
         Average:    18:25.96
   3 Messalonskee High School     91    7   12   14   21   37   47   69
      Total Time:  1:34:33.90
         Average:    18:54.78

Class A Girls Top 10

  1 Anne Guadalupi            SO Cony High School        6:36.1    20:30.6    1
  2 Elizabeth Labun           SR Hampden Academy         6:40.9    20:45.5    2
  3 Tessa Cassidy             JR Brunswick               6:48.0    21:07.4    3
  4 Katherine Leckbee         FR Mt. Ararat              6:49.6    21:12.4    4
  5 Tiffany Tanner            JR Brunswick               7:08.5    22:11.2    5
  6 Ruth Van Kampen           SR Brunswick               7:11.2    22:19.6    6
  7 River Lisius              FR Mt Blue                 7:12.3    22:23.1    7
  8 Simone Withers            SO Hampden Academy         7:16.2    22:35.0    8
  9 Stephanie Walker          SR Hampden Academy         7:23.3    22:57.2    9
 10 Vasilisa Mitskevich       JR Skowhegan               7:27.6    23:10.5   10

Class A Girls Top 3 Teams

   1 Hampden Academy              61    2    8    9   16   26   27
      Total Time:  1:54:27.40
         Average:    22:53.48
   2 Brunswick High School        64    3    5    6   21   29   41   49
      Total Time:  1:54:21.40
         Average:    22:52.28
   3 Lewiston High School        110   14   19   22   23   32   36   40
      Total Time:  2:00:36.00
         Average:    24:07.20

Leavitt senior Harrison Knowlton was the KVAC Class B boys champion running 17:34.2 which was 43 seconds faster than runner Chris Cote of Waterville. In the team race Maranacook held on for the 87-91 win over Camden Hills.

Class B Boys Top 10

  1 Harrison Knowlton         SR Leavitt                 5:39.3    17:34.2    1
  2 Chris Cote                SR Waterville              5:53.2    18:17.3    2
  3 Caleb Love-Webb           SO Camden Hills            5:54.5    18:21.4    3
  4 Ethan Harriman            SR Maranacook              5:58.4    18:33.4    4
  5 Roger Quehl               SR Belfast                 6:01.1    18:41.7    5
  6 Billy Chambers            JR Waterville              6:08.8    19:05.7    6
  7 William Seaman            SR Lincoln Academy         6:11.2    19:13.2    7
  8 Nick Mahar                SR Oceanside               6:12.4    19:16.8
  9 Justin Studholme          JR Erskine Academy         6:12.5    19:17.1    8
 10 Camrin Portela            SR Erskine Academy         6:15.1    19:25.3    9

Class B Boys Top 3 Teams

   1 Maranacook Community Scho    87    4   13   14   15   41   61   69
      Total Time:  1:39:33.50
         Average:    19:54.70
   2 Camden Hills High School     91    3   12   24   25   27   36   46
      Total Time:  1:39:11.11
         Average:    19:50.22
   3 Belfast Area High School    102    5   21   22   23   31   32   38
      Total Time:  1:40:01.70
         Average:    20:00.34

Hannah Despres of Marancook held off a strong challenge from Waterville's Lauren Brown to win the Class B KVAC individual title. Morse pulled the upset for the team title as the upended Maranacook 54-61

Class B Girls Top 10

  1 Hannah Despres            SR Maranacook              6:56.8    21:34.8    1
  2 Lauren Brown              JR Waterville              7:00.0    21:44.7    2
  3 Ruth Nadeau               SR Morse High School       7:10.3    22:16.7    3
  4 Cecilia Morin             SO Waterville              7:13.4    22:26.3    4
  5 Maris Silvestri           SR Morse High School       7:16.9    22:37.2    5
  6 Julia Labbe               SO Leavitt                 7:21.1    22:50.3    6
  7 Emily Kessel              SO Camden Hills            7:24.8    23:02.0    7
  8 Maeve McGowan             JR Morse High School       7:27.4    23:09.9    8
  9 Megan Noble               JR MCI                     7:31.0    23:21.1    9
 10 Ella Scott                SR Camden Hills            7:34.0    23:30.5   10

Class B Girls Top 3 Teams

  1 Morse High School            54    3    5    8   12   26   28   46
      Total Time:  1:57:03.20
         Average:    23:24.64
   2 Maranacook Community Scho    61    1   11   13   14   22   30   35
      Total Time:  1:58:09.80
         Average:    23:37.96
   3 Camden Hills High School     86    7   10   18   19   32   40   44
      Total Time:  2:01:03.70
         Average:    24:12.74