LONG ISLAND, N.Y. — Abbey Leonardi of Kennebunkport finished second Saturday at the 32nd annual Foot Locker Cross Country Championships Northeast Regional for the second straight year and earned the right to return to the national meet.
The senior at Kennebunk High School finished the 5,000-meter Sunken Meadow State Park course with a time of 18 minutes, 2 seconds. She was 11 seconds behind winner Aisling Cuffe from Cornwall Central High School in New York (17:51). The top 10 runners from each regional will compete in the national championship meets in San Diego, Calif., Dec. 11.
Other Maine finishers in the girls’ regional included Emily Durgin, a junior from Standish who ran a time of 19:03.2 to finish 24th, and Brunswick High junior Kathleen McMahon (42nd, 19:19:58).
Matt McClintock, a Madison High junior from Athens and the top Maine runner in the boys Northeast Regional, finished 42nd with a time of 16:37.4. Fellow junior Chase Brown of West Boothbay Harbor was 77th with a time of 17:04.9. The boys winner was Chad Noelle, a senior at Greene (N.Y.) High School who logged a time of 15:42.
Other Maine finishers in the boys race were Josef Andrews, a freshman at Telstar High School in Bethel who finished 99th (17:21.9); junior Andrew Reifman-Packett of Harpswell (122nd, 17:40.4); Chris Miller, a senior at George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill (136th, 17:49.7); junior Fred Quesada from South Freeport (142nd, 17:55); Falmouth High junior Payson Maxwell (153rd, 18:06.3); and junior Ben Lewis of Bryant Pond (168th, 18:33.1).