Wood suprises, Nagy repeats. Hampden Academy girls in a squeaker while Lewiston boys are the best
Junior Sam Wood of Mt Ararat was the surprise boys winner of the EM Class A regional, Wood clocked 17:00 to fend of a challenge from Lewiston's Mohamed Awil 17:04. On the girls side Erzsebet Nagy was able to defend her title but it wasn't easy as she ran 20:10. The Lewiston boys won the team title as expected with 59. The girls team race was close as 3 teams were separated by just 2 points. Hampden Academy came out on top with 63, while Mt Ararat edged Brunswick with a better 6th runner for the runner-up trophy. Check out all the action and see who made it to the state meet.
Results
Last week Mt Ararat's Sam Wood ran with the leaders of the KVAC Championship for 2 3/4 miles before fading over the finishing distance. Fast foward to the Eastern Maine regional chmapionship a week later & Wood would get his revenge as the junior took the best of the field with his 17:00 clocking over the wet and muddy course at Belfast.
"I took the leader earlier and got a bigger gap on the rest of the group, trying to make the race less about the kick which is my weak point." Wood said about the difference in the finish this week versus last
Finishing behind Wood in 2nd was Lewiston Mohamed Awil (17:04). For Awil despite the conditions it was personal best and more importantly 9 seconds faster than he ran 3 weeks ago at Festival of Champions. Awil was backed up by his teammate Isaiah Harris who continues to improve each week.
Hampden Academy's Caleb Lord who finished 8th a week ago at the KVAC Championship moved up to 4th (17:10). Right behind him was teammate Nick Kopf (17:11)
Lewiston's 3rd runner today was KVAC runner-up Mohamed Barre (17:12), following him was Jonathan Stanhope would had a much better race than a week ago. Stanhope was 9th a week ago well off the pace, but today he was right in the top pack with his (17:13)
Last week's KVAC champion Justin Tracy finished 8th with his teammate Josh Horne a few strides behind in 9th
Mohamed Mohamed of Lewiston rounded out the top ten giving the Blue Devils 4 runners in the first 10, his time was 17:20
Lewiston the heavy favorites didn't disappoint with 4 of the first ten. The Blue Devils scored 59 points to defeat runner-up Bangor by 24. The Rams were pleased with their effort cutting the gap from the KVAC meet from 41 to 24 this week. With a week to go anything is possible.
Mt Ararat moved up one spot from the KVAC meet to finish 3rd with 89, while Mt Blue the runner-up at KVAC was 2 points back in 4th with (91). Hampden Academy placed 5th with 96.
Also punching their ticket to the state meet was Brewer & Brunswick
Boys Individual State Qualifiers
1 Sam Wood JR Mt. Ararat 17:00.81 1 2 Mohamed Awil SR Lewiston 17:04.84 2 3 Isaiah Harris SO Lewiston 17:09.47 3 4 Caleb Lord SO Hampden Academy 17:10.95 4 5 Nick Kopf SR Hampden Academy 17:11.53 5 6 Mohamed Barre SR Lewiston 17:12.46 6 7 Jonathan Stanhope JR Bangor High School 17:13.84 7 8 Justin Tracy SR Mt. Blue 17:18.68 8 9 Josh Horne JR Mt. Blue 17:20.29 9 10 Mohamed Mohamed JR Lewiston 17:20.57 10 11 Lucas Bourget SR Elhs 17:36.24 11 12 Nathan Mackenzie JR Mt. Ararat 17:40.68 12 13 Jacob Archer SO Bangor High School 17:42.93 13 14 Sully Jackson SR Mt. Blue 17:47.56 14 15 Colin Glencross FR Bangor High School 17:49.60 15 16 Logan Moses JR Messalonskee 17:49.86 16 17 Dan Lesko SO Mt. Blue 17:53.20 17 18 Caleb Halvorson-Fried JR Bangor High School 17:55.24 18 19 Luke Rand JR Brewer High School 17:58.43 19 20 Tristan Walden JR Brewer High School 18:03.85 20 21 Jamie Ross SR Brunswick 18:05.22 21 22 Erik Dodge JR Erskine Academy 18:09.48 22 23 Jake Demosthenes JR Mt. Ararat 18:12.78 23 24 Dustin Ramsay JR Hampden Academy 18:14.55 24 25 Matt Gott SO Mt. Ararat 18:17.11 25 26 Stephen Taylor JR Brewer High School 18:26.01 26 27 Alex Nichols SR Brunswick 18:27.49 27 28 Shea Nelson JR Mt. Ararat 18:28.30 28 29 Spencer Canham SO Hampden Academy 18:29.10 29 30 Dominic Martin SR Bangor High School 18:32.32 30
Team Qualifiers
1 Lewiston High School 59 2 3 6 10 38 47 57
Total Time: 1:27:47.61
Average: 17:33.53
2 Bangor High School 83 7 13 15 18 30 32 44
Total Time: 1:29:13.93
Average: 17:50.79
3 Mt. Ararat High School 89 1 12 23 25 28 42 55
Total Time: 1:29:39.68
Average: 17:55.94
4 Mt. Blue High School 91 8 9 14 17 43 45 46
Total Time: 1:29:32.53
Average: 17:54.51
5 Hampden Academy 96 4 5 24 29 34 52 54
Total Time: 1:29:58.34
Average: 17:59.67
6 Brewer High School 136 19 20 26 35 36 60
Total Time: 1:32:18.56
Average: 18:27.72
7 Brunswick High School 162 21 27 33 40 41 49 51
Total Time: 1:33:20.94
Average: 18:40.19
Pacing is an important aspect of cross-country.
Go out to fast and pay for it in the last mile. Go out to slow and get buried in the pack. Finding the right pace is often important in race just ask Class A champion Erzsebet Nagy. While Nagy the defending champion repeated it wasn't easy. "I went out way to fast, I was 5:40, I was aiming for 6:00". The fast early pace took its toll of Erzsebet throughout the rest of the race. "My breathing was never right." Nagy commented. At the finish line she was exhausted and looked like she'd gone 12 rounds in a heavyweight championship boxing match.
While she would still defend her title by 26 seconds, she learned a lesson "I have to go out smarter next week."
Freshman Tessa Cassidy continued her strong postseaso running matching her runner-up finish from the KVAC Championship (20:36). Hampden Academy teammates Kylee Parker & Elizabeth Labun finished 3-4 to give the Broncos a huge edge in the team race, last week the order was reversed but the places the same
Teresa Murphy of Brunswick 7th a week ago moved up two spots to 5th (21:07)
Mt Ararat teammates Kelly Lynch & Olivia Swan were next in 6th & 7th
The surprise of the meet was Katelyn Cayer of Lawrence who came out of nowhere for an 8th place finish
Olivia Poulin of Messalonskee was 9th (21:46) while Courtney king of Cony rounded out the top ten
The top 3 teams were separated by just 2 points
Last week Hampden Academy was 3rd in the KVAC meet today they turned the tables to eek out a 2 point win.
Last week's winner Mt Ararat finished tied with Brunswick with 65 points but had the edge thanks to 6th runner Alicia Caterina 31st place finish.
Mt Blue finished 4th with Brewer in 5th
Also making it to the state meet was Bangor in 6th
Girls Individual State Qualifiers
1 Erzsebet Nagy SR Lawrence 20:10.33 1 2 Tessa Cassidy FR Brunswick 20:36.31 2 3 Kylee Parker SR Hampden Academy 20:52.84 3 4 Elizabeth Labun SO Hampden Academy 20:54.53 4 5 Teresa Murphy JR Brunswick 21:07.65 5 6 Kelly Lynch JR Mt. Ararat 21:10.94 6 7 Olivia Swan SO Mt. Ararat 21:22.31 7 8 Katelyn Cayer SO Lawrence 21:31.16 8 9 Olivia Poulin JR Messalonskee 21:46.64 9 10 Courtney King SO Cony High Scool 21:55.77 11 Tiffany Tanner FR Brunswick 22:00.44 10 12 Sarah Tatgenhorst JR Hampden Academy 22:01.55 11 13 Angelyn Masters JR Bangor High School 22:06.80 12 14 Lauren McNett SR Mt. Ararat 22:10.07 13 15 Emmie Cox JR Mt. Ararat 22:33.95 14 16 Katherine Gunther SO Mt. Blue 22:37.99 15 17 Faith Shaw JR Lewiston 22:43.88 16 18 Nikki Eremita SO Brewer High School 22:49.93 17 19 Deanna Richards SR Mt. Blue 22:50.09 18 20 Brooke Escoe SO Brunswick 22:53.61 19 21 Lindi Forsley SR Messalonskee 22:57.12 20 22 Sarah Wade JR Mt. Blue 22:57.26 21 23 Bryanna Parker FR Hampden Academy 22:58.57 22 24 Roxy Withers JR Hampden Academy 22:58.82 23 25 Kristen Robbins JR Bangor High School 22:59.79 24 26 Nicole Ross JR Mt. Ararat 22:59.83 25 27 Alizah Broussard SO Brewer High School 23:00.37 26 28 Pauline Liebig JR Hampden Academy 23:02.80 27 29 Cami Lucy JR Bangor High School 23:04.99 28 30 Anna Turner JR Brunswick 23:11.65 29
Team Qualifiers
1 Hampden Academy 63 3 4 11 22 23 27 38
Total Time: 1:49:46.31
Average: 21:57.27
2 Mt. Ararat High School 65 6 7 13 14 25 31 36
Total Time: 1:50:17.10
Average: 22:03.42
3 Brunswick High School 65 2 5 10 19 29 53 58
Total Time: 1:49:49.66
Average: 21:57.94
4 Mt. Blue High School 119 15 18 21 32 33 52 68
Total Time: 1:55:36.59
Average: 23:07.32
5 Brewer High School 146 17 26 30 34 39 42 43
Total Time: 1:57:21.69
Average: 23:28.34
6 Bangor High School 169 12 24 28 48 57 63
Total Time: 1:58:28.77
Average: 23:41.76