PVC XC Championship Meet Glance

The three weeks that high school runners plug miles, hammer out speed workouts and grind up hills for has finally arrived, as the high school cross country postseason will commence this weekend with conference championship action throughout the state
n Bangor on Saturday, bragging rights in the Penobscot Valley Conference will be on the line, with racing getting under way at 1 p.m. at Saxl Park on Mount Hope Avenue.
Even though all the conference’s schools will be competing together in the varsity races, the Class B and C competitors will be scored separately and champions crowned.
That is the same format used in the KVAC with the Class A and B teams. That meet is also scheduled for Saturday, at 2 p.m. in Augusta.
Defending champions in the PVC are the Caribou boys, MDI girls, Mattanawcook Academy girls and Foxcroft Academy boys.
Caribou has been running very well this fall, and the Vikings will be tough to beat this weekend.
Coach Roy Alden’s club boasts a very formidable top four in Christian Sleeper, Finn Bondeson, Tim Freme and D.J. Flynn while No. 5 man Jake Michaud has been coming along nicely throughout the season.
Caribou’s top challenger will be Ellsworth, and coach Andy Beardsley’s Eagles always hit their peak at exactly the right time.
The Eagles’ pack is led by Ben Chapman, while Lyle Stephenson and Alex Keefe have also been running strong for them this fall.
Individually, John Bapst sophomore Gabe Stewart (pictured left) has emerged as the top runner in the conference this season, and will be tough to beat on his home course.
Challengers include Chapman and Sleeper.
On the girls’ side, John Bapst, the state’s third-ranked team, is the favorite, but MDI and Ellsworth certainly can’t be counted out.
The Crusaders relied on pack power to finish an impressive second at Festival of Champions earlier this month, and will need it again to claim the conference crown.
Sarah Dickens and Adrienne Carmack have been leading the way for coach Joe Capehart, along with senior Kim Spencer.
MDI has come on strong late in the season, and is led by senior Mackenzie Curtis.
Ellsworth boasts one of the region’s top runners in Brianne Dunn, also a threat for the individual title, along with Old Town’s Dacie Manion (pictured right), Presque Isle’s Alecia Palmer and Chelsie Oldfield of Foxcroft Academy.
Rain is in the forecast for Saturday in the greater Bangor area, so expect a mucky, sloppy course which is already one of the more