A duel for the ages between Curts & Eastman. Brown runs fastest time of the day, Cape Boys edge Falmouth by 11, MDI repeats for girls
Dan Curts & Silas Eastman hooked up in another race for the ages as the two battled each other every setp of the way, and it was only a lean by Curts that gave him the win by just .04 seconds. On the girls side Bethanie Brown ran away with the title as expected, Brown clocked 17:56 to run the fastest time of the day for all girls. The Cape Elizabeth boys used a strong close to get by defending champs Falmouth by 11 points. On the girls side defending champion MDI repeated with another impressive performance in a state meet, the Trojans won by 32 points!
Photos Moosechili | Awards
Interviews Bethanie Brown | Dan Curts
Boys Recap
.04 seconds...
Yes that was the difference between Dan Curts & Silas Eastman in the boys Class B state championship race.
Eastman set the fast early pace that saw the duo go through the mile in 4:45. Curts was in Silas’s stripstream letting him set the pace, just as he had done in the earlier meeting at the Manchester Invitational in September.
The two would continue to run stride for stride through two miles with Eastman still setting the pace. The duo continued to push the pace but no one who give an inch.
It was in the downhill section heading into the final 400m that Curts would make his move to the front, it was a strong effort as the gap opened to 10m in a short amount.
Eastman wasn’t done though as the runners crested the small hill heading into the finish, Curts held a slight lead but Silas was gaining ground. The two would run stride for stride over the final 80-100m, and in the end Curts edged Eastman with a better lean. Curts winning time was 15:47.52 to 15:47.56
Amazing... The last 3 times that Eastman & Curts have raced the combined difference has been less than 1 second. Certainly the two have pushed each other to new limits, and will get a chance to race for a 3rd time this season in 2 weeks at the NE Championships.
Respect... Imagine losing the state meet by .04, the last thing you might want to do is cool down with the runner that beat you. But this is XC where the individual respect the efforts of each other and all that goes in to running well. As the class b girls race was underway there was Curts & Eastman running stride for stride again however this time it was just the cool down.
Camden Hill’s Ben Trapani ran a strong race to finish 3rd overall (16:36) while Greely’s Nate Madeira closed out his senior year with a 4th place effort (16:40)
Yarmouth Braden Becker had his finest race of the year as he would finish 5th (16:51), then came Cape junior Liam Simpson in 6th (16:55)
Robert Looker of Ellsworth moved up well in the final mile to finish 7th breaking 17 minutes (16:59), York senior Nick Eaton continued his strong post-season running with his 8th place effort (17:02)
Cape’s Peter Doane held on for 9th (17:03) as he edged Gray New Gloucester’s Will Shafer (17:04)
The team race was close as expected as WM regional champion Cape Elizabeth & Falmouth had a battle in the end
Early on Falmouth & Ellsworth were running well at the front with York & Cape slightly behind after the first mile.
At two miles Cape had the edge at 1-2 with Liam Simpson & Peter Doane but Falmouth’s Bryce Murdick & Jay Lesser were only a few places behind. Falmouth had the edge at #3, #4 & #5 half way through the race.
Heading into the final 1000m it was anyone’s race. Cape’s #4 Kyle Kennedy & #5 Justin Guerrette were the difference makers in the end as the sophomore & freshman closed very well. Guerrette dug deep over the final 200m moving ahead of Falmouth’s #4 & #5 runners to seal the win for the Capers.
York who was the WM regional runner-up a week ago put together another solid effort to finish 3rd, EM regional champion Ellsworth placed 4th, while Maranacook ran well for 5th.
Watch the epic finish...
Top 20 Individuals
1 Dan Curts JR Ellsworth 15:47.52 1 2 Silas Eastman SR Fryeburg Academy 15:47.56 2 3 Ben Trapani JR Camden Hills 16:36.49 3 4 Nathan Madeira SR Greely High School 16:40.83 4 5 Braden Becker JR Yarmouth 16:51.09 5 6 Liam Simpson JR Cape Elizabeth 16:55.42 6 7 Robert Looker JR Ellsworth 16:59.77 7 8 Nick Eaton SR York High School 17:02.25 8 9 Peter Doane JR Cape Elizabeth 17:03.29 9 10 Will Shafer JR Gray New Gloucester 17:04.10 11 Bryce Murdick SO Falmouth 17:10.56 10 12 Jay Lesser SR Falmouth 17:11.29 11 13 Alec Jordan SR York High School 17:26.22 12 14 Thomas Robichaud SR Yarmouth 17:28.63 13 15 Christian Heath SR Gardiner 17:30.50 16 Ron Lund SR Caribou High School 17:31.96 14 17 Nick Smelcer JR Lincoln Academy 17:34.10 18 Brayden Beardsley JR Ellsworth 17:34.93 15 19 Chris Cote SO Waterville 17:36.41 16 20 Spencer Brown SO Falmouth 17:36.59 17
Top 5 Teams
1 Cape Elizabeth 76 6 9 18 20 23 36 71
Total Time: 1:27:20.58
Average: 17:28.12
2 Falmouth High School 87 10 11 17 24 25 50 77
Total Time: 1:27:46.42
Average: 17:33.29
3 York High School 101 8 12 19 28 34 37 39
Total Time: 1:28:18.38
Average: 17:39.68
4 Ellsworth High School 105 1 7 15 31 51 69 84
Total Time: 1:27:04.49
Average: 17:24.90
5 Maranacook High School 190 22 26 33 53 56 62 90
Total Time: 1:31:18.32
Average: 18:15.67
Girls Recap
Want to see the race....
In a scene that has played out in each race she has run this season, Bethanie Brown took the lead early and never looked back,
The senior crushed the field as she ran the fastest time of the day 17:55. Her time was 7 seconds off of the course record. “I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get the record, but I’m pleased with how I ran.” Brown said post race
Brown went through the mile in 5:22, 7 seconds slower than she ran at FOC. “In hindsight I should have just pushed the pace earlier.”
The rest of the field ran well too. Greely’s Kirstin Sandreuter battled with Camden Hills Brittany Bowman over much of the first 2 miles before the junior from Greely pulled away with a strong last mile for the runner-up finish (19:01)
Bowman the defending champion ran another strong race in the championship season, she would clock 19:19 to finish 3rd.
Greely’s Eva Bates had one of the fastest closing miles in the field, as she looked fresh finishing in 4th (19:40) as she held off the quickly closing Kristina Smith of Poland (19:41) The two finished as the 1-2 sophomores in the race
WM regional runner-up Caroline Colan of Maranacook had a strong effort to finish 6th (19:45), while Oceanside’s Abby Hersom ran 19:51 to place 7th.
Camden Hill’s senior Hannah Brownawell had a strong race and moved up well over the second half to finish 8th (19:54)
EM regional champion Aleta Looker had a tough day but still finished 9th (19:58), John Bapst’s Adrienne Carmack gave it her all to finish in the top 10 (20:13), she would collapsed once she crossed the line, but was ok a few minutes latter.
The anticipated close team race between MDI & Camden Hills turned out to be another MDI route in the state meet. The Trojans who finished only 3rd in the EM Regional after running without their #1 runner Maggie Painter rebounded today.
While the Trojans didn’t put 5 runners in the top 16 this year they come through with a strong effort once again in the state meet. They packed in their top 5 between 11th - 22nd to score just 67 points.
Camden Hills who won the EM regional for the second year in a row last week finished as the state runner-ups for the second year in a row. They had to run with senior Emily Lopez for undisclosed reason, without her in the lineup the Windjammers couldn’t duplicate their performance from a week ago. Despite the adversity they still ran well enough to bring home the runner-up plaque, a real tribute to all that ran.
Waterville the EM runner-up put together another solid run in the postseason to finish 3rd just 10 points back of Camden Hills.
Greely rebounded from a 5th place finish at the WM Regional to nab 4th overall, they edged WM regional champion Falmouth by 6 points
Top 20 Individuals
1 Bethanie Brown SR Waterville 17:56.32 1 2 Kirstin Sandreuter JR Greely High School 19:01.19 2 3 Brittany Bowman JR Camden Hills 19:19.18 3 4 Eva Bates SO Greely High School 19:40.58 4 5 Kristina Smith SO Poland 19:41.04 6 Caroline Colan SR Maranacook 19:45.42 5 7 Abby Hersom JR Oceanside 19:51.06 8 Hannah Brownawell SR Camden Hills 19:54.53 6 9 Aleta Looker JR Ellsworth 19:58.44 7 10 Adrienne Carmack SR John Bapst 20:13.54 8 11 Maggie Painter JR MDI 20:13.61 9 12 Waylon Henggeler SO MDI 20:17.84 10 13 Tiana Thomas SR Waterville 20:26.36 11 14 Heather Evans JR York High School 20:27.40 15 Sarah Becker SR Yarmouth 20:28.72 12 16 Olivia Erickson JR MDI 20:35.26 13 17 Vishva Nalamalapu FR Falmouth 20:35.90 14 18 Mackenzie Belyea SR Caribou High School 20:39.84 15 19 Isabel Erickson JR MDI 20:42.39 16 20 Robyn Larrabee SO Caribou High School 20:44.40 17
Top 5 Teams
1 Mount Desert Island HS 67 9 10 13 16 19 72 80
Total Time: 1:42:36.80
Average: 20:31.36
2 Camden Hills High School 99 3 6 20 30 40 73
Total Time: 1:43:41.48
Average: 20:44.30
3 Waterville Senior High Sc 109 1 11 22 33 42 61 89
Total Time: 1:43:09.61
Average: 20:37.93
4 Greely High School 142 2 4 43 45 48 62 76
Total Time: 1:45:07.63
Average: 21:01.53
5 Falmouth High School 148 14 18 28 32 56 66 79
Total Time: 1:47:04.08
Average: 21:24.82