Griffin Allaire, Kate Pinette, Wells Win at NYA
On Friday, Old Orchard Beach and Wells joined NYA at their home course at Royal River Park in
Yarmouth. The park makes for a unique XC course that takes runners on paved trails through the woods.
The runners find themselves racing along the side of a road for a small portion - making for a course
where athletes are better off leaving their shoes spikeless. Both races, particularly the girls' were very
small, owing to the fact that there were only three smaller teams in attendance.
The girls' race had only 13 runners, 9 of whom were from Wells. By the half mile, the runners had
already started to separate themselves from each other, with Wells' Kate Pinette and Summer Sayward
leading.Emma Collins of NYA was next, followed closely by 4 more runners from Wells. Nothing would
change much throughout the race, however, with around a half mile to go, Pinette had separated herself a
bit from Sayward. Collins was still in third, and had put some distance between herself and the chase
pack. Pinette would keep the lead until the end, finishing in 22:08. She wouldn't have to wait long for her
teammate Sayward to follow her in in second. She would run 22:36. Collins would follow in third with a
time of 24:23. Wells would have a group finish in close succession for places 4-7, beginning with Grace Bradish's 25:43. Following her were Chaya Lord-Rozeff (25:49), Charlotte Allaire (25:51), and Olivia Michaud
were Hattie-Paige Dunton of Old Orchard (28:44), and Sam Levasseur of NYA (28:47). Rounding out the
(35:37), all from Wells.
In the team standings, Wells was the only team with enough runners to score.
On the boys' side, the field was bigger than the girls', but still on the small side with 24 runners
competing. The race began with Griffin Allaire, Decovan Dufort, and Indie Brogan of Wells and Chris Hamblett and James Tourigny of NYA taking it out hard up front and running in a tight pack. These
runners would remain the top 5, but had separated themselves as the race went on. By a half mile to go,
Allaire had established himself as the clear leader, running way out in front. He would keep this lead for
the rest of the race, running a strong time of 16:57. His teammate Decovan Dufort would take second,
running 17:41. Hamblett, Brogan, and Tourigny would follow in close succession, racing to times of
and 9th, running times of 19:55 and 20:15. NYA's Caleb Waterman would take the 10th spot in 20:33.
In the team scoring, Wells would take the win with a score of 24 points, followed by NYA in 39, and Old
Orchard with 69.
Next Friday, both Wells and Old Orchard will join York and Sacopee at Traip for a Friday meet, while
NYA will journey up to Belfast for the Festival of Champions on Saturday.