Class C State XC Championship Preview: Who wins round three between GSA & Orono girls

If the results of last week's Northern Regional are any indication, then we are in for a heck of a battle for the team title in Class C on the girl's side. George Stevens Academy (ranked ninth in the most recent Saucony Flo-50) nipped Orono (ranked eighth) by one point, 35-36 at last week's regional in Belfast. GSA sandwiched its top three (Eliza Broughton, Mary Richardson and Zeya Loria) in between Kassidy Dill, the regional champion, and Camille Kohtala who finished fifth, while Tess Williamson outkicked Orono's no. 5 runner Marta Ehringhaus 21:26.94 to 21:29.42 which would ultimate decide the victory. Orono is the reigning Class C champion while George Stevens will be looking for its first ever state title. The key for Orono this weekend lies on Steelman, who is still coming back from an injury that has plagued her a bit in 2016. At best, she's one of the top runners in the state regardless of class, and if she can hang with her teammate Dill, and not allow GSAs top three to get in front of her, Orono should like its chances on Saturday. For GSA to win they will need a similar performance from their Northern Regional victory. If its trio of Broughton, Richardson and Lorio can all finish in the top-10 GSA will have a good chance, but will need another good performance from Williamson and Bella Cimeno, who was their no. 5 last week finishing 17th overall.

Out of the Southern Region expect St. Dominic Academy to try and challenge Orono and GSA this weekend. St. Dom's was fifth a year ago and dominated the Southern Regional last weekend scoring just 31 points. The key for St. Dom's in 2016 has been their tight 1-4 pack, and it showed at the regional as they put four in the top-7 overall. Alexandra Hammerton has had a great 2016 season and should challenge for a top five finish. She was the runner up to Boothbay's Faith Blethen last weekend. Caroline Castonguay, Ella Brown and Sydney Sirois make up the rest of St. Dom's top four, which has been incredibly solid, but will need a great race from Megan D'Alessandro for St. Dom's to challenge Orono and George Stevens Academy.

The Waynflete Flyers are another team out of the south region that will likely challenge for a top three finish. They finished third last year and were the runner up at the Southern Regional last weekend on the strength of Ellie Chidsey's fourth place finish. Getting a top-10 finish from her will help the Flyer's chances. Their no. 2 and 3 runners, Sophia Mayone and Abby Pipkin, who were 11th and 12 respectively, will also need to stand out performances for Waynflete to contend. Maine Coast Waldorf will look to shoot for a top five finish on Saturday. Olivia Skillings finished third last week and will contend for a top-8 finish which will be key for MCW. They had four runners in the top-20 and will need a similar type of outcome on Saturday for them to contend for a top three finish.

Girls Individual  Top 200 State Meet Times @ Belfast

Orono senior Kassidy Dill has finished 5th, 2nd, and 3rd in her career at the state meet and is the favorite to win his first individual state title on Saturday. Dill won the regional running 19:40,14, which was nearly 30 seconds faster than Eliza Broughton of George Stevens Academy. She's had a great season in 2016: she finished 10th at Festival of Champions running a SB 19:27.94, and won the PVC Championships back on Oct.15 running 19:33.70.

Boothbay sophomore Faith Blethen took home the Southern Regional title last weekend running 21:11.80 and is expected to challenge for the individual title. She finished fourth in 2015 and has had a very good 2016 season. She has a PB of 19:39 and finished 17th at the Festival of Champions running 19:53.76.

Northern Regional runner up Eliza Broughton will look to challenge for a top spot as well. The George Stevens Academy junior finished the regional in 20:06.66 and ran her best race of the season at FOC running to a 16th place finish running 19:53.02. Her teammates Mary Richardson and Zeya Lorio will also challenge for a high finish. Richardson and Lorio finished 3rd and 4th respectively last weekend and were both top-10 performers at the state meet in 2015 (Lorio 7th, Richardson 10th).

Hannah Steelman of Orono will look for a high finish on Saturday. The 2014 individual champion has been returning from an injury and has been progressing back to form. She was seventh at the regional running 20:51.60 and ran a season best of 20:48.40 at the Sectional Invitational finishing fifth back on Sept. 24. Steelman was the runner up in 2015.

Alexandra Hammerton of St. Dom's Academy will look to challenge for a top five finish. She was the runner up to Blethen at the Southern Regional running 21:14.41 and won the D2 title at the WMC Championships running 21:13. She ran a PB of 20:12.17 at FOC finishing 27th.

Also watch for Olivia Skillings of Maine Coast Waldorf on Saturday. She was third at the Southern Regional running 21:14.42 and has a SB of 20:13.09, which she ran at FOC.

Class C Boys Team  Virtual Meet

The Orono Red Riots were the runner up in 2015 and hope to win its first state title since 1975 when they competed in Class B. The won the Northern Regional Championship scoring just 26 points as they put six in the top-12 overall. They have relied on a tight 1-5 spread and have been led by Matt Keresey in 2016, who finished fifth at the regional. Orono had its top six runners under 18:00, and had a 53 second 1-5 split last weekend which gives them a huge edge going into the state meet.

After Orono there are likely three teams who will battle for the runner up spot. Maine Coast Waldorf won the Southern Regional by two points (70-72). Their no. 1 runner Tucker Pierce was the individual runner up, and will challenge for a top three finish on Saturday, while Nick Neveu and Dylan Wu both ran top top five finishes, finishing fourth and fifth respectively. They arguably have the best top three in the class, but fall off significantly after that. For Maine Coast to challenge for the runner up, they'll need great performances from Calvin Soule (32nd at the regional) and Davis Ritger (36th). Maine Coast finished eighth in 2015.

The team Maine Coast beat at the regional, Waynflete, hopes to challenge for the runner up spot as well. Wilson Moore finished third at the regional and is expected to challenge for a top five finish. They also have Henry Spritz who was sixth at the regional. If they can get two top-10 finishes from Moore and Spritz, the Flyers should like their chances. However, they will need John Veroneau (18th), Peterson Silk (21st) and John Van Dyke (33rd) to have season best races for Waynflete to contend. The Flyers finished seventh in 2015.

The defending Class C champions, George Stevens Academy, were the runner ups at the Northern Regional and will look to upend the contending southern regional teams on Saturday. GSA has the best duo in the class with individual favorite, John Hassett at the helm. Hassett is looking to win his second straight individual title. He won the Northern Regional last weekend, crushing the field in 16:19. Senior Ollie Dillon has emerged as one of the top runners in the class this season and will look to contend for a top five finish. The key for GSA will be its performances of its 3-5 runners. Like other teams in the class, they fall off after their top two, and will need season best races from Max Mattson (19th at the regional), Caden Mattson (20th) and Beckett Slayton (31st) for GSA to contend for a top three finish.

Boys Individual  Top 200 State Meet Times @ Belfast

After cruising to a Northern Regional title running 16:19 last weekend, defending state champion John Hassett of George Stevens will look to win his second straight title on Saturday. He comes into Saturday with a PB of 16:15.10 which he ran at the Festival of Champions finishing sixth overall. If the conditions are up to par, look for Hassett to shoot for a sub-16:00 clocking.

Attempting to challenge Hassett will be Jacob Hickey of Winthrop. Hickey won the Southern Regional running 16:40.62 which was the third fastest time of all classes. In what was expected to be a battle between him and Maine Coast Waldorf senior Tucker Pierce turned out to be a dominating performance from the Winthrop senior. He's been impressive so far in 2016 highlighted by his win at the MVC Championships on the notoriously difficult UMaine-Augusta course where he ran to a very fast time of 16:35.50. He comes in with a PB of 16:32.71, which he ran at FOC finishing 11th overall.

Pierce, the runner up at the Southern Regional, ran to a very respectable time of 17:22.76 in sloppy conditions and hopes to challenge Hickey once again. Pierce beat Hickey at FOC running a PB of 16:29.17 to finish ninth, and was also the D2 champion at the WMC Championships running 17:08 - the third fastest time of the day. Pierce was the runner up at last year's state meet.

Deer Isle-Stonington junior Brendan Penfold will be looking for a top five finish on Saturday. After finishing 19th at the state meet in 2015, Penfold has improved dramatically having broken 17:00 twice this season after posting a PB of 17:26.99 last year. He ran 16:55.23 at FOC to finish 28th overall and was the runner up to Hassett last week running a lifetime best of 16:54.89.

Hassett's teammate Ollie Dillon hopes to contend for a top five finish this weekend. After finishing seventh in 2015 Dillon has transformed into one of the top Class C runners in Northern Maine, and proved it by finishing third at the regional running a lifetime best of 16:55.61.

Wilson Moore of Waynflete finished 12th in 2015 and hopes to make a splash into the top five range. He finished fourth in D2 at the WMC Championships and outkicked Maine Coast's Nick Neveu to finish third last weekend running 17:29.93.

Neveu is another runner to watch. He finished 31st at FOC running a lifetime best of 17:01.84. Also watch for Isaiah Brown of Houlton. He finished 10th in 2015 and ran a lifetime best of 17:01.38 to finish fourth at last week's Northern Regional.