Boys Results / Girls Results
Defending Class B state champion Sam Laverdiere of Lake Region had a slow start to his season due to a broken collarbone late in the summer, but the senior has made the best of his efforts this season. Heading into the state championship, Laverdiere defended his Southern Maine Regional title, clocking 16:06 at Twin Brook.
Laverdiere started conservatively on Saturday content not to push the first 800m too fast. Only Aidan Ring of York was able to match his pace as the duo exited the woods after the mile together. Freeport junior Alex Gilbert was chasing about seven seconds back, with his teammate Conner Smith next another five seconds back.
Coming out of the woods after passing through two miles in 10:02, Laverdiere had opened up a sixteen gap over Ring and the chase for a sub-16-minute performance was on. Ring remained in second with a twelve-second gap over Gilbert with Smith another eight seconds back in fourth.
Laverdiere exited the pain cave with his eyes still on breaking 16 as he increased his turnover on the downhill section, and entered the homestretch with the clock still on 15. Just before he crossed the finish line he pointed to sky as the clock read 15:52.79, the sixth fastest Maine performer in course history at Twin Brook.
"I always dreamt but didn't believe I would be up there, it feels really special," Laverdiere commented about his sub-16 effort.
Class B Boys Photos
Ring finished strong netting his fastest time on the course by twenty-one seconds with his 16:15 effort. Gilbert (16:28) and Smith (16:36) have Freeport two low sticks in third and fourth.
Morse junior Levi Riggs had a strong last mile that saw him move from eighth up to fifth with a strong kick in 16:48, his time was thirty seconds better than a week ago. Greely senior William Coull put together his best race of the season to finish sixth in 16:50, slicing off thirty-seven seconds from the regional. York junior Hayden Atkinson finished seventh (16:56), he was followed a few strides later by junior Tait Harvey of Greely (16:58). Keeping with the theme of improvement Atkinson was thirty seconds faster, while Harvey was fifty-two seconds better than a week ago. Northern Regional champion Griffin Merrill of John Bapst was next at 17:12 with Ellsworth's Aedyn Hughes rounding out the top ten with his 17:16 effort.
Freeport behind the 3-4 finish of Gilbert and Smith combined with the 11th from senior Owen Dawson tallied 69 points to win the Falcon's fourth consecutive Class B team title. The battle for the runner-up plaque was close as Caribou and York were tied at 92 through five runners and the Vikings had the edge at the sixth runner to secure the hardware. The Vikings didn't have a top-ten finisher but did have a forty-three-second spread for their top five. Greely was fourth followed by Yarmouth.