Girls Preview.
In addition to Lauren Morrison, the senior from Mattanawcook who returns for the third straight year, Carolyn Todd, Lily Horne, Iris Kitchen, Micaela Ashby, and Ashley Irby have entered the race for the second season. Injuries may keep both Kitchen and Ashby off the course this week.
Todd, a rising senior at Greely High School in Cumberland, is running the high school mile for the second year. In 2017 Todd took the fourth spot in a field that featured sixteen female runners. The intervening twelve months have been good for Todd both on the track and the cross country course. Led by her fourth place finish in the Girls Class A Cross Country Championships the Greely Rangers took the runner-up spot their first season in Class A. On the track, where the Rangers still compete in Class B, Todd led both the indoor team and the outdoor teams to State Championships. Along the way she also collected two individual titles as she stood at the top of the podium for both the indoor mile, and the two mile.
Greely's Carolyn Todd runs in the 2017 Maine Class A Cross Country Championships
While her Rangers took the outdoor team championship this spring Todd had to be satisfied with the second place medals in the 1600 and 3200 as she was edged in both events by Freeport's Lily Horne.
Horne, a rising senior for the Falcons, won the B2B High School Mile in 2017 with a time of 5:28.8. This spring she also won both the 1600 and the 3200 at the Class B State Championship. The 5:13.28 at the States gives her the best 1600 mark among the seventeen entrants. In addition she is the Class B Cross Country Champion in Maine; she bested the field at Twin Brook by 32 seconds to take the individual title last fall. Horne was also named the female runner of the season by Maine Mile split.
For Horne, the 2017 High School Mile marked a bit of a coming out party. Many of the top female high school runners establish themselves in the top ranks as freshman, often establishing personal bests early, and remain competitive throughout their careers. Horne, on the other hand, just gets better each successive season. In the 1600 as a first year, Horne finished 20th in the State meet, 7th as a sophomore, and then first as a junior. Likewise in the 5k she has gone from 56th, to 14th, to first as junior. The 2017 High School mIle, coming as it did between her sophomore and junior seasons represented her first win against top competition.
Although Horne edged Carolyn Todd for the State Championship this June, just a week later at the New Englands Todd notched a season's best 5:15.08 to take the 11th spot, while Horne finished 15th. Todd's personal best in the 1600 is 5:14.27, the third fastest in the HS mile.
An injury will keep rising Junior Iris Kitchen, entered for the second consecutive year, from competing; in 2017 she crossed the line in seventh position. Her personal mark in the 1600 is 5:20.39, but running for the Gorham Rams she has been on the podium more often in the 800 and the 3200. Her 800 time of 2:24.02 was third in the state in the Indoor Class A Championships, and she grabbed the fifth spot in the outdoor season. As a freshman in 2016 Kitchen took 6th in the 3200 for State Class A Championship.
Also returning for a second year is rising junior Micaela Ashby of Brunswick. Ashby is looking to bounce back after an injuries impacted her sophomore campaign. As freshman she'd finished 17th in the State Class A Cross Country Championship. Her top mark in the 1600 is 5:34.02.
Lauren Morrison, a rising senior at Mattanawcook in Lincoln, is coming back for a third straight year. This will be Morrison's last year of eligibility for the event; she is the only female to have entered each year since the race's inception.
The final returner for this season is Ashley Irby from the Saltus Grammar School in Hamilton Bermuda. One thing to be sure of, Irby wins the award for traveling the longest distance to compete. Last year she showed a mile qualifying time of 5:25 achieved in the U-16 division of the Front Street Mile, a companion race to the January Bermuda Marathon. Word is she won this race again in 2018 for a seventh consecutive year.
In the April 2018 Carifta Games, U-20 division, Irby placed 4th in the 1500 meters clocking in at 4:54.13. Using Milesplit's conversion calculator this is equivalent to a 1600 time of 5:15.75. The Carifta games is an annual competition among the nations that make up the Caribbean Free Trade Association (among them Jamaica, Bermuda, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago). Using the converted 1600 meter time, Irby would likely be among he top five seeds. In May she ran an 800 in 2:20.14 at a USATF event at UMass Lowell.
On the flip-side of Ashley Irby's long trip is home-town girl, Lila Gaudrault. As a freshman she paced the Caper's Cross Country team taking third in the State Class B meet and leading her team to a fourth place finish. She was the runner-up in the Festival of Champions freshman race when she notched a 19:09 in the 5K on Belfast's Troy Howard Middle School Course. This spring she claimed the fourth podium spot in the Class B 3200 State Championship. Gaudrault's best 1600 time is 5:41.33
Kate Tugman competes in the Laliberte Classic on Cony's challenging Augusta course in August 2017.
With Iris Kitchen unable to compete a second Ram, Kate Tugman, entered in her first B2B High School Mile, will be carrying all the water for Gorham. The junior's best time in the 1600 is 5:26.60 and she claimed fourth place in this years Maine State Class A Championship meet.
The Bonny Eagle Scots will have three-fourths of the State Champion 4 x 800 team on hand in Kayla Raymond, Christine Toy, and Ami Beaumier. The trio, along with Emma Abbott, clocked a 9:35 in the Class A State meet this spring to take the first spot. With Raymond at 2:18.98, Beaumier at 2:21.39 and Toy at 2:24.53 they hold three of the top ten open 800 times this past spring.
Beaumier holds three State Championships: the 2018 Class A indoor two mile title, and both the 2018 and 2017 Class A outdoor 3200 meter titles.
Ami Beaumier, Kayla Raymond, and Christine Toy stick together amid runners from Scarborough and Greely during the 2017 Class A State Cross Country meet.
Just a week after finishing third in the 1600 at 2018 State Championship Christine Toy lead all Mainers at the New Englands with a time of 5:13.82. Kayla Raymond won the State 1600 Championship as a freshman with a time of 5:17.41.
Look for Beaumier to be the dark horse in this group, her focus in championship meets over the past year has been the longer distances but she did notch a 5:16.41 for 1600 in an SMAA meet his spring.
Though Beaumier heads into her senior year as the woman to beat at 3200, it has not been easy. This spring's state title came after a back and forth battle with Hampden's rising junior Helen Shearer. Shearer's time, 11:23.45, was just a shade off Beaumier's 11:23.17. For a week it represented Shearer's personal best but she eclipsed it a week later at New Englands where her 11:11.16 led all Mainers..
Shearer's best time in the 1600 is 5:18.84. Like Toy, Raymond and Beaumier this is Shearer's first B2B High School Mile.
Shearer's Hampden teammate, Moxie Flanagan, also holds a state championship in the 1600; but her signature event is the 1600 meter race-walk. She claimed the title this spring after being the runner-up as a freshman year. She followed the State Championship this spring with a 12th place finish at the New Balance Nationals. At nationals the race-walk is a 3K event; Flanagan crossed in 16:11.52. Her qualifying time for the run comes from an indoor mile where she clocked a 5:41
Mackenzie Young, a rising senior at Marshwood has qualified for the State Class A Championship in the 3200 three years running and claimed a podium spot in the 2 mile indoor Championship in 2018. She led the Marshwood harriers this past season as the Hawks lone qualifier for the state meet where she finished 13th and qualified for the New England Championship as an individual. Her fastest 1600 time is 5:37.88.
Mackenzie Young, among the leaders during the 2017 Class A Cross Country Championship will run in her first B2B High School Mile this year.
Hannah Sanderson of Belfast has a qualifying time of 5:56 from an indoor mile when she placed second during the 2017 KVAC Championship. This spring she ran a leg of the 4 x 800 relay for a Belfast team that placed second in the Class B State Championship.
Olivia Ouellette of Poland has a 5:38 time in the 1600. In addition during the 2017 indoor season she medaled in the State Class B Championships with a sixth place finish. For the last two seasons she has been the number one runner for the Poland Knights Cross Country team.