ORONO, Maine — Kassidy Dill has enjoyed a pretty darned good cross country postseason.
Racing on a conference, regional and state championship level, the Orono High School senior won all three races against her Class C counterparts, and in convincing fashion.
On Saturday, Dill has a chance to race against the best Maine and New England has to offer at the New England Interscholastic Championships at North Scituate, Rhode Island.
Dill, the Class C state champion, will join 24 of Maine’s other top schoolgirl runners and teams in the Ocean State.
The top 25 individual finishers and the top six overall teams, boys and girls, all qualified to represent Maine at New Englands.
This will mark the first time Dill has competed as an individual. Orono has won the girls team state championship the last three seasons, but finished second to George Stevens of Blue Hill this year.
“Unfortunately, my team can’t be there with me this year, so it’ll be a little bit different,” Dill said.
That certainly won’t dampen her competitive spirit.
“It’s always been fun competing at New Englands,” she said.
Dill and the rest of the field will be racing on a 5-kilometer course, and Dill’s seasonal best at the distance came in the state meet at Belfast last weekend, when she broke the tape in 19 minutes, 29.97 seconds
She’s hoping another personal best will be in the cards.
“That will definitely be my goal going into the race,” Dill said. “I know there’s a lot of good competitors not only from Maine but from every state around New England.”
The Maine competitors include Mount Desert Island senior Tia Tardy, Yarmouth senior Abigail Hamilton and Greely of Cumberland Center senior Katherine Leggat-Barr, who posted the top three times at states last weekend.
When you combine all three classes, Dill’s time was good for the 15th fastest at the state meet, and the competition Dill and Maine’s other top runners will face this weekend will be arguably among the toughest of the season.
“It’s a totally different level caliber of runner,” Orono coach Lin White said. “She’s running strong, she’s running confident.”
Dill and her teammates had to deal with a small dose of adversity this fall when the North regional races were postponed due to weather, pushing regionals and states back a week, and giving New England’s qualifiers a week of rest heading into that race.
Typically, there are two weeks between states and New Englands for the Maine contingent.
“I’m definitely feeling fresh. Our regular season got extended by a week,” Dill said. “I’m definitely feeling very prepared.”
Dill, who also plays basketball and runs outdoor track at Orono, feels she is going into Saturday with nothing to lose.
“The mindset is just run fast, run like I’ve been taught by my coaches,” Dill said.
Team qualifiers for the meet are the Greely of Cumberland Center, York, Yarmouth, George Stevens, Falmouth and Bonny Eagle of Buxton on the girls side, along with boys teams from Orono, Falmouth, Greely, Deering of Portland, Windham and Wells.
Follow Ryan McLaughlin on Twitter at @rmclaughlin23.
