Freeport doubles up taking both regional titles

Western Maine Class C Regional Championship
Derek Veilleux

The team race in the Class C girls meet was expected to be close between the defending champion Waynflete Flyers and new to Class C Freeport Falcons, the meet certainly upheld those assumptions, and NYA joined the party too. The three teams were separated by just 3 points once the scores were tallied.

 Waynflete's Amy Allen took the regional title in just her first season of running xc. "I was surprised that I was out in front, I have been used to running with my teammate Martha Veroneau, but she had some problems with her shoes early on in the race." Allen was 32 seconds faster than the runner up Laura McDonald a freshman from Hall-Dale. The Freeport duo of Lindsey Merrill & Ellie Soule were next across in 3rd and 4th, while Lisbon's Meagen Thomas punched her ticket to the state meet with her 5th place run.

 

Freeport took round 1 with a three point victory. The key for the Falcons was placing 3 girls in the top 10 finishers, after displacement that left them with a score of 13. Leading the way was senior Lindsey Merrill who finished 3rd. The biggest improvement for Freeport was  #5 runner Lia Wellen, who had her best race of the season, her 38th place finish was higher than many expected

 

Waynflete and NYA went down to the 6th runner to decide who would get the runner-up plaque. The Flyers on the strength of 6th runner Mica Thompson's 37th placed finish prevailed. Waynflete will be eager to get another shot at freeport at the state meet, as they have some misfortune during the race when #1 runner freshman Martha Veroneau had a shoe come off, she had to stop and put it back on, which cost her some valuable time. She did recover to finish 6th. For NYA, being close to Freeport and Waynflete was a bit of a surprise. They relied on the strength of a 7-8-9 finish from Hillary Detert, Maeve Stier, & Maggie Meixell.

Top 30 Individuals qualify for the state meet (Individuals not on a team are in red)

  1 Amy Allen                 SR Waynflete                 21:31.87     1
  2 Laura McDonald            FR Hall-Dale                 22:03.49    --
  3 Lindsey Merrill           SR Freeport                  22:09.14     2
  4 Ellie Soule               SO Freeport                  22:18.99     3
  5 Meagan Thomas             SO Lisbon High School        22:23.81    --
  6 Martha Veroneau           FR Waynflete                 22:27.16     4
  7 Hillary Detert            12 North Yarmouth            22:28.64     5
  8 Maeve Stier               10 North Yarmouth            22:28.67     6
  9 Maggie Meixell            12 North Yarmouth            22:28.75     7
 10 Kiera Berkemeyer          SR Freeport                  22:30.92     8
 11 Teagan Wu                 FR Merriconeag               22:33.87    --
 12 Zoe Chace                 FR Merriconeag               22:42.91    --
 13 Anna Doyle                JR Winthrop                  22:43.84    --
 14 Emily Trafton             SO Waynflete                 23:10.40     9
 15 Morgan Lee                JR Telstar Regional HS       23:11.14    --
 16 Alyse Carney              JR St. Dominic               23:12.24    10
 17 Lauren Easler             JR Freeport                  23:30.26    11
 18 Sunny Pinkham             JR Traip Academy             23:34.78    --
 19 Taylor Maines             JR Telstar Regional HS       23:38.90    --
 20 Sarah Jordan              12 North Yarmouth            24:07.20    12
 21 Naomi McGonagill          SR St. Dominic               24:17.10    13
 22 Sikwani Dana                 Carrabec                  24:24.67    --
 23 Jessica Theberge          FR Madison High School       24:28.07    --
 24 Melody Royer              JR Telstar Regional HS       24:32.08    --
 25 Cadyn Wilson              JR Hall-Dale                 24:34.09    --
 26 Heidi Pinkham             FR Wiscasset                 24:36.30    --
 27 Kayla Minkowsky           FR Monmouth Academy          24:36.91    14
 28 Devon Ayer                SR Monmouth Academy          24:38.79    15
 29 Felicia Stewart           SR St. Dominic               24:50.10    16
 30 Phoebe Suva               FR Waynflete                 25:06.53    17

 

State Qualifying teams

  1 Freeport
  2 Waynflete
  3 North Yarmouth

Class C Boys

      From the gun Matt McClintock (Madison) shot out to the lead of the Class C regional meet. “I wanted to get ahead early to put pressure on the rest of field, especially Chase Brown of Boothbay.” McClintock would say of his race strategy. He executed the plan to perfection, as he captured the title, running a fine 17:03 in the process. Matt just missed running under the 17 minute mark, “My goal was to run in the 16’s, that didn’t happen so I’ll be aiming for that again next week.” His time was the 12th fastest of any harrier on the day, pretty good considering Matt didn’t wear spikes. The reason for not wearing spikes is simple “When I wear spikes it makes my run on my toes, it just doesn’t feel right.”

 

     Chase Brown (Boothbay) had a strong day earning the runner-up finish, just 11 seconds back of McClintock, the gap two weeks ago at the MVC meet was 30 seconds, so Brown is inching closer. Freeport’s Griffin Day and Henry Loughlin finished 3rd and 4th to lead the Falcons to the regional title. Freshman Jack Pierce (Merriconeag) rounded out the top 5. Ben Lewis (Telstar) & Charlie Jones (North Haven) punched their ticket to the state with 6th and 7th place finishes respectively. While Boothbay #2 runner Matthew Forgues better known for his race walking abilities was 8th. Merriconeag #2 runner freshman Juan Mesones was 9th while Jake Kostik crossed the line 10th, giving Freeport 3 runners in the top 10.

 

Freeport showed it will be the team to beat at the state meet as they handled the rest of the competition with ease. The Falcons behind 3 runners in the top 10, scored 68 points to outdistance the upstart Merriconeag team by 29 points. Merriconeag is in just its third year as a program, where very excited by their performance. The team was paced by two freshman Jack Pierce (5th) and Juan Mesonses (9th). Defending champion Boothbay finished 3rd despite not running their #3 and #5 runners, hopefully they can get healthy in time for the state meet.

 

Top 30 Individuals qualify for the state meet (Individuals not on a team are in red)

  1 Matthew McClintock        SO Madison High School       17:03.97     1
  2 Chase Brown               SO Boothbay                  17:14.62     2
  3 Griffin Day               JR Freeport                  17:29.90     3
  4 Henry Loughlin            SR Freeport                  17:52.60     4
  5 Jack Pierce               FR Merriconeag               17:55.94     5
  6 Ben Lewis                 SO Telstar Regional HS       18:03.62     6
  7 Charles Jones             JR North Haven               18:14.14    --
  8 Matt Forgues              SR Boothbay                  18:18.33     7
  9 Juan Mesones              FR Merriconeag               18:19.28     8
 10 Jake Kostik               SR Freeport                  18:21.57     9
 11 Abukar Adan               FR Waynflete                 18:23.60    10
 12 Cam Regan                 12 North Yarmouth            18:24.32    11
 13 Matt McInnis              SO Monmouth Academy          18:37.04    12
 14 Patrick McInnis           JR Monmouth Academy          18:44.31    13
 15 Dylan Ricker                 Carrabec                  18:51.88    --
 16 Evan Kendall              12 North Yarmouth            18:52.16    14
 17 Evan Fessenden            SR Telstar Regional HS       18:53.86    15
 18 Alex Branson              JR Lisbon High School        18:55.78    16
 19 Ben Garant                SR Hall-Dale                 19:02.48    17
 20 Kameron Souza             SO Winthrop                  19:03.52    18
 21 Tom Brown                 SO Boothbay                  19:04.36    19
 22 Zach Nichols              SR Winthrop                  19:08.01    20
 23 Phineas Samuelson         JR Merriconeag               19:09.96    21
 24 Kyle Blanchette           SR Hall-Dale                 19:11.05    22
 25 Josh Espy                 FR Waynflete                 19:12.74    23
 26 Rudy Guiliani             12 North Yarmouth            19:13.37    24
 27 Taylor Saucier            SO Freeport                  19:19.51    25
 28 Elliott Kahl              SR Monmouth Academy          19:21.65    26
 29 Max Jennings              JR Freeport                  19:21.91    27
 30 Lance Thomas              SR Lisbon High School        19:23.43    28

 

State Qualifying teams

  1 Freeport
  2 Merriconeag
  3 Boothbay
  4 North Yarmouth
  5 Monmouth Academy
  6 Lisbon High School

 

 

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