LINCOLN, Maine — The Caribou boys cross country team used a threat from another class to retain its Penobscot Valley Conference large-school championship at Mattanawcook Academy on Saturday.
The Vikings easily won their division, placing all seven varsity runners among the top 11 large-school finishers to total just 20 points, well ahead of second-place Old Town (79) and third-place Mount Desert Island (80) of Bar Harbor.
But the chance to score lower than small-school champion Orono, which won its fourth straight PVC crown, provided the main satisfaction of the day for Caribou beyond merely defending its 2014 title.
“Orono is Class C, but it was kind of in the back of our minds that we wanted to beat them because they’d beat us the past few races,” said Caribou senior Chathu Karunasiri, who led the large-school runners across the finish line in 17 minutes, 0.92 seconds, a time bettered only by small-school and overall race winner John Hassett of George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill, who set a course record of 16:14.28 for the first-year, 3-mile route.
“That was a big goal for us, along with getting our pack time down and getting everyone together.”
Caribou’s top five runners finished within 53 seconds of each other, with sophomore Evan Desmond and senior Tsion Macleod separated by 0.82 seconds in second and third places while sophomore Daniel Randolph was sixth and senior Caleb Hunter eighth.
“They ran extremely well,” said Caribou coach Roy Alden. “We’ve been working hard, things have started to come together and we’re getting packed up a little bit tighter these last couple of weeks. It seems like they’ve all had good races at separate times, but today pretty much all five runners had real good races so that’s a good sign.”
Jason Bartley of Presque Isle and Peter Philbrook of MDI rounded out the top five individuals, while Gabe Piquette of Foxcroft Academy was seventh and senior Connor Archer paced Old Town with a ninth-place finish.
Orono used top-five finishes from sophomore Matt Keresey (second), junior William O’Neil (fourth) and senior Tristan Butterfield (fifth) to defeat GSA 25-34 and retain its hold on the boys small-school crown.
Junior Lowell Ruck and freshman Gavin McDonald finished ninth and 10th as the Red Riots held off a GSA contingent led by Hassett’s best performance of the meet.
Hassett won the individual championship for the second straight year, this time topping the next fastest runner regardless of class by 46.64 seconds.
““The races at this time of the season are more ‘tempo sandwiches,’ that’s what I like to call them,” said Hassett. “You start slow, you speed up and then try to go for your PR at the end by killing that last mile.”
“I feel like the last mile today was slower because of all the mud, but overall I think the whole idea worked out.”
