The Penobscot Valley Conference Championship Race was a highly anticipated race and took
place Saturday afternoon at the Caribou High School. Although the course was wet from raining
all morning, there were still some fast times on the day. Class B and C ran together and then
results were separated by class. In total, runners from 28 teams competed.
Complete Results from PVC XC Champs
On the first race of the day, boys varsity, it seemed like a tight race until Kaleb Colson of Sumner
pulled away from the group around 2 miles. William Hileman of Bucksport and Sam York of
MDI tried to hang on. Ultimately, Colson went on to win in a time of 16:27.56. Hileman was not
far behind in 16:42.05. York rounded out the top three with 16:47.08 after pulling away from the
group.
York was the first runner of Class B. Ethan Roach of John Bapst and Ephraim Willey of Caribou,
who were a part of the strong group at the front, finished second and third in Class B in 16:58.17
and 17:09.18.
Colson and Hileman were first and second place in Class C as well, while Ethan Linscott of Lee
grabbed third place in 17:41.03.
Photo Galleries from PVC XC Champs
In the team results the boys from John Bapst were first in Class B, merely 2 points over MDI. The boys from George Stevens were first, an easy 30 points over Sumner in second in Class C.
Moving onto the girls varsity race, the winner came as no surprise. The dominating Ruth White
of Orono finished the course in 17:54.76. Over a minute behind her came Amelia Vandongen of
MDI in 19:06.24. Teanne Ewings of Houlton came across the finish line in 19:16.17. Vandongen
was able to edge out Ewings in the last half mile after the two have battled in the sprint twice this
season already.
Vandongen was first place in Class B, Kayley Bell and Maggie Bell of Caribou were second and
third in 20:26.60 and 21:09.05, respectively. White and Ewings were the top two spots in Class C
while Thea Crowley of GSA, who battled with Ewings and Vandongen all race, was third in
19:32.04.
The dominant MDI girls team won Class B, 50 points ahead of Caribou in second. The Orono
girls led by Ruth White easily defeated second place Houlton 27 to 42.
In the boys JV race, the finish was a tight one. Chris Cooper and Tryg Soares of MDI
ran away with first and second. They were only seconds ahead of Erik Davis of GSA in third.
The three ran 19:19.67, 19:23.43, and 19:24.09, respectively. The MDI boys also won as a team
with 26 points.
While it did look like Tilly Puleo of Orono was going to win the girls JV race, Emma Simard and
Lillian Beckwith of MDI took over with half a mile left. Simard completed the course in
23:29.71, Beckwith in 23:53.98, and Puleo in 24:08.57. The MDI girls easily won the team
results with 16 points.