Nov 19, 2011

Rand & Carl All-Americans lead Maine contingent at D3 Nationals

USM junior Molly Carl saved her best race of 2011 for the national meet as she finished 27th overall to earn All-American status. Carl covered the 6k course in a personal best 21:35.48. Molly becomes the 2nd runner from USM to earn All-American honors in the history of the school's program. Carl covered the first mile in 5:35 good for 25th place, she stayed in just about the same spot after covering mile 2 in 5:52 (11:27). Molly would move up a bit after a 5:54 3rd mile which left her in 26th place with just about 3/4 of a mile to go.

On the Men's side Tufts Matt Rand was the top Maine runner with his 19th place All-American finish. Rand led his team to a 9th place finish, and set a personal best 24:36.12 for the 8k course.Matt started off strong after a 4:45 first mile had in 29th position, then he went to work during mile 2 moving up 17 spots to 12th after a 4:55 mile (9:40-2miles). Rand would maintain very well furing mile 3 & 4 running 5:00 & 5:02 go for 14th place overall, in the final mile he pushed hard covering it in 4:56 good for a lifetime best 8k and first xc All-American award.

On the Men's side Bates College led the local team with a 7th place finish, while Bowdoin College finished 15th. Sam Seekins was the 3rd runner for Bowdoin finishing 119th overall (25:24). Also competing in the meet was Liam Cassidy of Tufts, Cassidy was the 4th runner on the 9th place team, he placed 101st overall, covering the course in 25:17. Another former Maine HS standout Wade Davis (Williams) had a strong day finishing 76th (25:07), he was the 4th runner for the 6th place team.

On the women's side Emily Attwood was on the National runner-up Middlebury College team, she was the 6th runner finishing 116th overall (22:24.68). Other former Maine runners competing where Dacie Manion (MIT), Manion was the 7th runner on the 5th place Engineers team, she finished 272nd (24:47.22). Bowdoin's Olivia MacKenzie had a strong showing in her first national meet with a 92nd place finish (22:15.48).