Sam Nisbett, Sara Chavarie, Hampden boys, Brewer girls triumph

BANGOR — The short, yet warm summer wasn’t quite ready to dissipate Friday as five KVAC teams gathered at Bangor High School for the first cross-country meet of the season.
The warm temperatures proved to be no issue for Sam Nisbett, Sara Chavarie, the Hampden Academy boys and Brewer High girls.
Nisbett and Chavarie captured individual crowns while the Broncos and Witches each nabbed team honors.
Hampden outdistanced Bangor 29 points to 53, tucking four runners in the top 10. Waterville scored 74 points to finish third while Lawrence was fourth with 96 and Brewer fifth with 114.
The reigning Eastern Maine Class A champion Brewer girls, led by Chavarie’s first-place finish, tallied 29 points while Hampden finished second with 52 and Bangor third with 54.
Lawrence and Waterville each scored 113, but the Bulldogs from Fairfield were awarded fourth place on the sixth-runner tiebreaker.
In the boys’ race, Hampden senior Darik Frye bolted out to an early lead, and appeared to be in command.
But Nisbett, also a senior, gradually caught up throughout the race, and after shortening Frye’s lead to about five strides at the 1.5-mile mark of the 2.6-mile course, Nisbett ran Frye down in the stretch portion.
Coming out of the woods, the two were separated by about 30, 40 yards, but Nisbett widened his lead on the final portion of the course in which the runners loop around Bangor’s soccer and practice football fields.
Nisbett was timed in 13 minutes, 44.65 seconds, averaging a 5:17 mile. Frye finished in 14:00.63 while Sebastian Peters of Lawrence was third, HA’s Pevan Piccirillo fourth and Jeff Hale of Waterville fifth.
The Broncos showed why they’ll be one of the top teams in Eastern Maine Class B this fall, as Frye, Piccirillo, Greg O’Donnell (sixth), Evan Burke (eighth) and Andrew Closson (ninth) all earned top-10 finishes.
Travis Bach rounded out the scoring for coach Dick Balentine’s club, finishing 12th.
Other runners who cracked the top 10 were Jonathon Belanger of Bangor and Sam Nashed of Waterville.
In the girls’ race, Chavarie, a sophomore for coach Glendon Rand’s Brewer club, followed her coach’s advice and went out strong yet relaxed early in the race and just picked things up from there.
“He wanted us to go out in a controlled first mile and just take it from there,” commented Chavarie, who was timed in 17:33.07.
Teammates Michelle Haluska, Lily Sund and Rachel Huber of Bangor comprised of the chase pack, and Chavarie was a bit astounded they didn’t try to pace off of her.
“I was a little surprised … I thought my teammates Lily and Michelle and maybe Rachel Huber would be up there,” she explained.
Chavarie’s summer training is starting to pay off.
“I ran a lot more than I did last year, I made the 200-mile club, that was one of my goals,” she said.
To make a team’s 200 mile club, a runner must compile 200 miles worth of training runs over the summer.
Haluska went on to finish second while Huber was third and Sund fourth. Hampden’s Alley Becker rounded out the top five.
The 1-2-4 finish of Chavarie, Haluska and Sund powered Brewer to the team victory while Bekah Clark finished eighth overall and Mikaela King 14th to round out the Witches’ scorers.
Other top-10 finishers included Kylee Parker and Blakelee Jordan of Hampden, Mariah Reading of Bangor and Courtney Williams of Waterville.