A couple of familiar faces took home individual titles during the 2015 Maine Marathon held on Sunday in Portland.
Evan Graves of Caribou was the overall winner for the second time in five years, while Leah Frost of Glover, Vermont, claimed her third consecutive women’s crown.
The 34-year-old Graves, the 2011 champion, got to the front near the halfway mark and was never seriously challenged. He clocked a time of 2 hours, 34 minutes, 59 seconds to best the field of some 850 competitors.
Robert Ashby of Brunswick was second in 2:41.31, and Boston’s Sean Cameron finished third with a time of 2:42:26.
Frost, a 32-year-old Maine native, registered a personal-best time of 2:47:34, which sliced more than four minutes off her previous best set while taking the 2014 Maine Marathon.
Rachel Coogan of Allston, Massachusetts, was the runner-up but finished 5½ minutes behind Frost in 2:53:07. Mary Pardi of Falmouth wound up third in 2:54:39.
Graves, a teacher in Caribou, is the coach of the varsity boys cross-country team at Presque Isle High School.
“I noticed the guy ahead [of] me start to fall apart form wise, and I plugged away, still running my race for three miles until I caught him,” Graves told the Aroostook Republican in Caribou.
“From that point on, I continued to be pretty consistent running 5:55 miles and dropping a couple of 5:40s, which felt good,” he said.
Graves, formerly a successful cross-country performer at the University of Maine-Presque Isle, is a member of the Owls’ Athletic Hall of Fame.
“I stuck to my plan, went out on pace, and I felt good,” Graves said. “I dipped under to 5:55s pretty consistently after eight miles, and it turned out to work in my favor.”
In the Half Marathon, Mike Fisher of Brookline, Massachusetts, won a tightly-contested race against Ivan Reznik of Archangel, Russia. Fisher clocked a time of 1:12:10.
The Half Marathon women’s champion was Jenna Krajewski of Hallowell. She ran a 1:20:20 to beat defending champ Christine Irish of North Yarmouth (2:10:20).
Krajewski won for the second time after earning her first title in 2002 when she went by Jenna Richardson.
Gabrielle Wheeler of New Sweden was third among the women in 1:23.06.
There were several other Mainers among the age-group winners in the Maine Marathon.
On the men’s side, they included: Dick Graves, Gorham, Male Grandmasters, 3:23:03; Colin Schless, South Portland, Male 30-34, 2:55:16; Jeff Rioux, Kennebunk, Male 40-44, 2:59:52; and Bob Morse, Standish, Male 70-74, 4:08:36.
Among the women, divisional champions from Maine were: Kathy Ventura, Falmouth, Female Grandmasters, 3:27:50; Danielle Skillin, Cumberland, Female 30-35, 3:14:20; Kate Church, Cumberland, Female 60-64, 4:46:45; and Jeanne Butterfield, Bangor, Female 65-69, 4:35:56.