In the girls race Cheverus's Fiona Hendry had a good size lead but took a wrong turn at some point in the woods loop. After the wrong turn teammates Emily Durgin & Shannon Conley took over the front running duties all the way to the finish, they would cross together, and raise hands together in victory in around a 19:33. The duo would be disqualified for the the illegal act, so 3rd place finisher Kiera Murray ended up taking the top spot in 19:47 with Hendry still finishing 4th despite losing a significant amount of time 19:52. The first non stag finisher was Nyajock Pan of South Portland 20:35 in 3rd place overall. Ella Ramonas (Deering) finished 4th 21:15 with Maddie Woods (Cheverus) rounded out the top 5 21:35.
Check out the race video (only the last 3/4 mile)
In the boys race the early pace was set by South Portland's Darryl Wilkinson with Tom Dean (Deering), Ben Allen (Portland) & Lukas Temple (Cheverus) following behind as they did two laps around the soccer field to start the race. Wilkinson continued to lead with Allen moving into wnd as the runners entered the woods, when they re-emerged from the woods there was a new leader. Lukas Temple was at the front with Ben Allen in his slipstream, behind them was a big pack of Dean, Wilkinson, Dexter Morse (Portland), & Thomas Salamone (SP). Over the final 1k, Allen would assert his dominance over the field as he pulled away from the win crossing in 17:29, to finish 16 seconds in front of his teammate Dexter Morse. Morse closed out the race with a strong finish and kick. Speaking of kids Brady Foshay (Cheverus) moved up the most over the final 1k, and used a powerful kick to finish 3rd 17:46. Salamone of SP finished strong as well to be the first Red Riot across the line in 4th, 4 other teammates would finish in top ten as well as the Red Riots dominated the team race. Tom Dean of Deering rounded out the top 5 (17:49)
Check out the race video
Interview with Boys winner Ben Allen (Portland)