With the Maine Cross Country Festival of Champions on the horizon, the Mount Desert Island girls and Caribou boys were aiming for solid performances at Tuesday's Sectional Invitational meet.
Both teams rode the wave of top individual finishers Heather Spurling and Christian Sleeper, capturing the team victories on a sun-splashed afternoon at Old Town High School's Victory Field.
The defending Eastern Maine champion Trojans compiled 33 points while Caribou finished second with 52. Presque Isle scored 66 and Old Town 80 to round out the field of scoring teams.
Spurling ran a strong second half of the race to beat out OT's Dacie Manion, who had led through the first mile. Spurling finished the 3.1-mile course in 20:29.63 while Manion was timed in 20:37.17.
Spurling's Trojans exhibited plenty of pack power, as they posted a pack time of 1:48 in tucking five runners in the top 10 and six in the top 11. Kailyn Russell and Mackenzie Curtis fnished 6-7 for MDI while Lily Madeira, Kymry Brooks and Jessica Swanson nabbed the 9-11 slots. Dayna Michuad and Mary Jo Sheehan finished third and fourth for Caribou.
The Caribou boys continued their undefeated season, piling up 40 points to runner-up MDI's 48. Presque Isle was third with 68, Hermon fourth with 97, Schenck fifth with 124 and Old Town sixth with 136. The battle for the top individual slot was a great one between Caribou's Christian Sleeper and Michael Rioux of Stearns. Sleeper had just enough of a kick at the end to fend off Sleeper, finishing in 17:41.09 while Rioux clocked a 17:46.48. Brandon Theriault of Schenck took third in 17:56.99.
The Vikings placed three scoring runners in the top 10, as Jesse Stephens and Steve Melbourne finished fourth and fifth. Sam Swann, Peter Logue, Gavin Willow and True Muzzy finished 8-9-10-1 for MDI, which ran a very strong seconde.