The KVAC Class B cross-country championship found a home at the Quarry Road trails in Waterville after previously being scheduled for Belfast. Due to a COVID-19 breakout in Waldo County, and a "Yellow designation by the state the meet had to move. Even in the days leading up to the event, the meet lost teams due to COVID concerns with Medomak Valley and Lawrence not being able to compete on Saturday. Unfortunately with those teams out to of the best runners in the conference were unable to compete with Connor Daigle of Medomak Valley and Josiah Webber of Lawrence were left wondering what could have been.
With the meet underway in the boy's race freshman Joshua Way of Waterville used his knowledge of the course and talent to run away from the field to win the race in a time of 17:14.01. The time was the fastest of his high school career and after five races he remains undefeated heading into the Class B state meet. Way punched his ticket to the state meet as one of the individual qualifiers.
Leavitt sophomore Logan Ouellette had the race of his life as he clocked a huge personal best 17:51.35 to finish as the runner-up and move on to the state meet as an individual qualifier. Entering the meet his previous best for 5k was 18:34 from earlier this fall.
In the team competition, Morse took the KVAC Class B title with 27 points with Lincoln Academy second with 56 points, and Erskine Academy in third with 63 points. All three teams will advance to the state meet. For Morse, they were paced by the 3-4 finish of seniors Liam Scanlon and Aidan Pryor. They had all five scorers in the top 11 finishers.
Boys Top Ten Individuals
1 Joshua Way * FR Waterville 17:14.01 2 Logan Ouellette * SO Leavitt 17:51.35 3 Liam Scanlon SR Morse High School 18:04.34 1 4 Aidan Pryor SR Morse High School 18:07.56 2 5 Liam Card SO Lincoln Academy 18:14.37 3 6 Kelby Austin Young SR Erskine Academy 18:18.26 4 7 Will Sherrill JR Lincoln Academy 18:50.65 5 8 Dyer Spencer SR Maranacook H 18:51.93 6 9 Caleb Avery SR Morse High School 18:56.68 7 10 Riley Dunn SO Morse High School 19:13.14 8
On the girl's side, it was a battle between the top two seeds Margo Kenyon of Leavitt and Olivia Tiner of Winslow. Kenyon held the lead for the early stages of the race before Tiner took over on the hills to pull away for a convincing victory. Tiner's time over the 5k course was 20:33.22, twenty-seven seconds faster than she ran on the same course a few weeks ago. With the victory, Tiner secured herself a spot in the Class B state meet, a year ago she finished tenth at states. Kenyon finished as the runner-up in 21:16 and will also compete in the state alongside her teammates from Leavitt.
Oceanside junior Maria Protheroe in her first cross-country season had a strong third-place finish with her 21:24.13 effort. She grabbed the final individual qualifying spot for the state meet.
The team race was expected to be close with all of the four teams competing having a good shot to advance. In the end, the Purple Panthers of Waterville led by a fourth-place finish from sophomore Abby Williams to win by ten points over runner-up Morse. Leavitt grabbed the final qualifying spot with 71 and they edge out Lincoln Academy by seven points.
Girls Top Ten Individuals
1 Olivia Tiner * SR Winslow High School 20:33.22 2 Margo Kenyon SR Leavitt 21:16.88 1 3 Maria Protheroe * JR Oceanside 21:24.13 4 Abby Williams SO Waterville 21:42.33 2 5 Cannell Lily SR Maranacook H 22:23.87 3 6 Audrey Crews JR Morse High School 22:38.36 4 7 Iris Hennin JR Morse High School 22:39.04 5 8 O'Clair Sophie SR Maranacook H 22:57.64 6 9 Ellery Macgregor SR Leavitt 23:00.53 7 10 Adeline Hall FR Lincoln Academy 23:29.40 8