The conditions were unseasonably warm on Friday at Falmouth Community Park for the Western Maine Conference Championship XC meet, however that didn't stop Matt Rand (Sr. Cape Elizabeth) from blitzing the field after the mile on his way to a 18 seconds victory, while just missing the course record held by Miles Bartlett (16:10) in the process. Rand’s 16:15 for 3 miles on the challenging Falmouth course is the 2nd best time on the course.
The race started with Alex Moser (Jr. York) leading the field with Rand on his shoulder, they went through 800 meters in 2:36 and from there the pace picked up a bit as the approached the mile.
At the mile it was still Moser & Rand, coming across in 5:04. Behind them there was a pack of three Greely runners, Logan Price (Jr.), James LePage (Sr.) & Mark McCauley (Jr.) at 5:09, closely following were Dylan Lajoie (Sr. Poland), Kenndi Hall (Jr. Fryeburg)& Chris Flathers (Sr. Cape) in 5:11. Falmouth had a pack of three runners at 5:15 that included Tim Follo (Fr.), Jamey Epstein (Sr.) & Scott Gardner (Sr.).
Just after the mile, Rand seized control of the race on the uphill section, and by the 1 ½ mile mark his lead was up to 8 seconds over Moser. Coming into the meet Rand said, “The plan was to turn it on after the mile on the uphill, and just push the 2nd mile as much as I could.” When asked if he knew he had opened up a gap, he Rand replied, “Yeah I knew I had, I took a peak coming around the corner just before the 1 ½ mark and didn’t see him.”
As the runners came out of the woods and circled the field they headed back on to the soccer fields, where the two-mile marker was located. Rand came through in 10:40 (5:04-5:36), which tells you just how tough the 2nd mile is on this course. His lead had been extended to 15 seconds over Moser. Moser was holding onto to 2nd place though and was still running well. Behind him Price started to break away from his teammates in his attempt to chase down Moser. LePage was 4th with Flathers moving up to pass McCauley. The Falmouth pack was still in tack and in the top 10.
There was a lot of movement in the pack during the final mile, but not at the front as Matt Rand finished strong with a 16:15, Moser was 2nd proving last weekend’s win at the FOC was no fluke, he is for real. Price charged hard down the finish straight but couldn’t quite catch Moser, finishing 3 seconds behind him. Greely showed it’s power taking the next two spots with McCauley & LePage; Flathers ran a strong race but couldn’t quite catch the Greely pack finishing 3 seconds back of LePage. Falmouth packed them in at 7-9th place. Yarmouth’s Ben Nickerson secured a top ten finish with his 17:46. The next 7 runners decided the team title, as Greely and Cape had several exciting sprints to the line. Peter Brigham (Cape) had a great day moving his way up throughout the race to cross 11th, but it was the strong sprint finishes of Sam Johnston (Greely) & Sam Humphries (Greely) from 12th & 13th that sealed the team title for the Rangers, as they got past Leo Ledman (So. Cape) & Thomas Bottomley (Fr. Cape) with just 1-2 second separating them.
Greely came away with a 37-47 victory over the Capers but the race was
probably closer than many thought it would be. With 3 weeks left in the season, Greely is still the favorite to capture the class B title, but Cape showed they have closed the gap. When asked about his team success today, Rand responded, “We had the best week of practice we’ve had all year, we did some longer runs and some tough workouts, but we came in well rested (Cape didn’t race last weekend) and ready to go.” Falmouth was 3rd with #10 ranked Yarmouth getting by #6 ranked York by a score of 124-132.
Top 15 Individuals
1 Rand, Matt Cape Elizabe 16:15.00 1 2 Moser, Alex York XC 16:33.00 2 3 Price, Logan Greely High School 16:37.00 3 4 McCauley, Mark Greely High School 16:50.00 4 5 LePage, James Greely High School 16:56.00 5 6 Flathers, Chris Cape Elizabe 16:59.00 6 7 Epstein, Jamey Falmouth 17:10.00 7 8 Follo, Timothy Falmouth 17:11.00 8 9 Gardner, Scott Falmouth 17:20.00 9 10 Nickerson, Ben Yarmouth 17:46.00 10 11 Brigham, Peter Cape Elizabe 17:49.00 11 12 Johnston, Sam Greely High School 17:50.00 12 13 Humphries, Sam Greely High School 17:51.00 13 14 Ledman, Leo Cape Elizabe 17:52.00 14 15 Bottomley, Thomas Cape Elizabe 17:52.00 15
Top 5 Teams
1 Greely High School 37 3 4 5 12 13 17 18
Total Time: 1:26:04.00
Average: 17:12.80
2 Cape Elizabeth High Schoo 47 1 6 11 14 15 27 28
Total Time: 1:26:47.00
Average: 17:21.40
3 Falmouth High School 76 7 8 9 22 30 32 33
Total Time: 1:28:06.00
Average: 17:37.20
4 Yarmouth High School 124 10 21 24 29 40 41 45
Total Time: 1:31:07.00
Average: 18:13.40
5 York XC 132 2 23 34 35 38 42 48
Total Time: 1:30:23.00
Average: 18:04.60
Girls WMC
T
he Western Maine Conference Girls Championship meet featured top ranked Cape Elizabeth who were expected to easily win the team title, as well as some top ranked individuals, Emily Attwood (Jr. Cape), Adele Espy (Sr. Waynflete) & Marita Stressenger (Sr. Cape). The conditions were a little warm, but that didn’t stop the race from being exciting.
From the gun it was Attwood, Espy, & Molly Susla (Sr. Freeport) stride for stride. Interesting side note was that Susla hadn’t race it a while as she had been doing some junior national biathlon competitions & Attwood wasn’t race sharp either as she this was her first race in 3 weeks. The trio rambled through the fields and emerged at the mile mark still attached at the hip, Attwood & Espy were 5:53, with Susla a step back in 5:54. Michaela Swiatek (So. York) was 4th in 6:00, then it was Kelsey Barton (So. Cape) & Kendra Lobely (Poland) coming across in 6:04. Cape looked to be in a dominate position at the mile, with Hannah Doss (Jr.) & Katherine Tierney (Fr.) in the 7th & 8th spots. Tess Carley (Greely) running in her first race in Maine was 9th with Emily Atwood (Sr. Fryeburg) & Grace Miller (Fryeburg) rounding out the top 11th spots, all three were past the mile in 6:15.
When the runners emerged from the woods, just before the 1-½ mile mark it was Espy, who had taken over the race alone at the front, she came through in 9:19 with Attwood 7 seconds back at 9:26. Espy said “I had run against Emily & Marita back on Sept. 19, it was only my 2nd race and they had been racing a lot, 
I just wanted to see how close I could get to them—(note: she was 12 seconds back of Attwood & 2 back of Stressenger). This time I was just going to go out and stay with them as long as I could and take off if I could
later in the race.” The runners continued out the woods, Susla was still 3rd but the pack behind her was closing in with Barton & Swiatek nipping on her heels.
By the 2-mile mark Espy has opened up a 20 second advantage and was looking strong. Espy would later say of her race “we got to the ½ mile mark, I felt like I was holding back, I felt really good
and had a lot of spring in my step.” “I gained some time on Attwood on the uphill after the mile and then I just kept going.” Attwood was still comfortable in 2nd crossing in 13:00. Barton had moved up into 3rd with Susla two seconds back. Swiatek had dropped off a bit and was holding down 5th place, with Doss & Tierney creeping closer. Rachel Nichols (So. Cape) moved up a lot during mile 2, she was 14th at the mile and now 8th, and continuing the pass runners.
Espy continued her blistering pace all the way to the line, breaking Emily Attwood’s course record by 7 seconds and taking the WMC title with a 19:03 clocking, an excellent time on a tough course and warm day. Espy won the title that eluded her by just a second last year. Espy immediately collapsed on the ground after her race. After the race, Espy had this to say about collapsing, “Collapsing after the race was a reward for running a good race, I felt I raced very hard and felt good.” Attwood was the 2nd runner across the line in 20:00, after her followed three other teammates Barton-20:10, Tierney-20:18, & Nichols-20:30 as C
ape put an exclamation point on it’s victory. Swiatek was 6th in 20:35 and Cape rounded out it’s top 5 with Doss in 7th. Tess Carley had a fine debut with an 8th place run, with Erin Morris (Falmouth) next in 9th & Lobely rounded out the top 10.
As mentioned previously Cape was dominant today even without #2 Stressenger. They had 5 of the first 7 runners across the line, with all of their runners in the top 18. While Cape won, the battle for 2nd was very close, Freeport with Susla back in their lineup prevailed 97-103 over Fryeburg Academy for the runner-up trophy. York ranked #10 was 4th with 105 & Falmouth ranked #5 rounded out the top 5.
Top 15 Individuals
1 Espy, Adele Waynflete School 19:03.00 1 2 Attwood, Emily Cape Elizabe 20:00.00 2 3 Barton, Kelsey Cape Elizabe 20:10.00 3 4 Tierney, Catherine Cape Elizabe 20:18.00 4 5 Nichols, Rachel Cape Elizabe 20:30.00 5 6 Swiatek, Michaela York High Schoo 20:35.00 6 7 Doss, Hannah Cape Elizabe 20:48.00 7 8 Carley, Tess Greely High School 20:53.00 8 9 Morris, Erin Falmouth 20:59.00 9 10 Lobley, Kendra Poland 21:05.00 10 11 Atwood, Emily Fryeburg Academy 21:24.00 11 12 Miller, Grace Fryeburg Academy 21:26.00 12 13 Davis, Caroline Freeport 21:31.00 13 14 Susla, Molly Freeport 21:32.00 14 15 Kozlowski, Paige Cape Elizabe 21:33.00 15
Top 5 Teams
1 Cape Elizabeth High Schoo 21 2 3 4 5 7 15 18
Total Time: 1:41:46.00
Average: 20:21.20
2 Freeport High School 97 13 14 20 21 29 45 74
Total Time: 1:49:40.00
Average: 21:56.00
3 Fryeburg Academy 103 11 12 17 28 35 37
Total Time: 1:50:20.00
Average: 22:04.00
4 York High Schoo 105 6 16 25 27 31 41 76
Total Time: 1:49:56.00
Average: 21:59.20
5 Falmouth High School 119 9 19 23 30 38 44
Total Time: 1:51:15.00
Average: 22:15.00