BELFAST, Maine — The Ellsworth High School girls cross country team had to wait a couple of extra days last week to receive its Class B North championship plaque after a timing snafu on race day.
No wait was required Saturday after the Eagles won the state championship trophy at the Troy A. Howard Middle School.
Led by third-place finisher Caitlin MacPherson, Ellsworth fought off a deep field of challengers to capture its first state championship in girls cross country since 1978.
Coach Louie Luchini’s squad finished with 87 points to edge defending state champion Yarmouth (90), York (97) and Mount Desert Island of Bar Harbor (101) among the 14-school field.
“I don’t think they really believed me when I said we had an outside shot at winning this thing, but they really put it together today and that’s what it takes to win,” said Luchini.
Also crowned state champions were Orono, which won its second straight Class C title and its fifth in the last six years; and Bonny Eagle of Standish, which won Class A for the third time in four years and the fifth time in the last seven seasons.
Ellsworth originally finished second, one point behind neighboring MDI, at the Class B regional, but as seeds were being determined for states it was discovered that the North meet had been timed out to tenths of a second, not the standard hundredths of a second.
When those times were revised to hundredths of a second, a slight positional change led to Ellsworth and MDI being tied in the final team scoring, and Ellsworth then earned the regional championship by the sixth-runner tiebreaker.
“It was just a timing mistake, it wasn’t anybody’s fault,” said MacPherson. “Today we were just really trying to go as hard and as fast as we could. Everyone had a great race, and that’s what did it for us.”
MacPherson, the North region individual champion, was timed in 19 minutes, 19.50 seconds to trail only race winner Lila Gaudrault of Cape Elizabeth (18:42.82) and 2017 state champion Lily Horne (19.19.66) of Freeport.
But major support from sophomore Abby Mazgaj (ninth overall), junior Trinity Montigny (17th), sophomore Sarah Shea (23rd) and senior Emma McKechnie (39th) provided the Eagles the depth they needed.
“Our coach thought it was a possibility but it was kind of a longshot,” said MacPherson. “Everyone just had a great race and good times, it was really a huge team effort. We push each other and work together and always stay positive and that works well for us.”
MDI placed three runners among the top 20, junior Katelyn Osborne (fifth), freshman Grace Munger (20th) and junior Rachelle Swanson (21st).
The Class C girls faced the worst conditions of the day, with a gradually increasing wind and light rain at start of their race, the last of six held during the meet.
But it did little to slow the Red Riots, particularly sophomore Erin Gerbi, who placed third overall to help Orono capture its second straight state championship and fifth in the last six years.
“The course was kind of a mess with us being the last race in the mud,” said Gerbi. “I like this weather, I just felt good the whole race and it was a good day for us.”
Senior Camille Kohtala, the North regional champ, added a fourth-place finish and sophomore Julia White was seventh as coach Lin White’s club amassed 41 points to defeat second-place Maranacook of Readfield (66).
Other top-five finishers for the Red Riots were sophomore Amneh Wise (15th overall) and freshman Nora White (16th).
“They’ve just come all year with the mission of trying to run the best races they can,” said coach White. “Today they did it, and I was really proud. One through seven they they ran really well.”
Sophomore Olivia Reynolds of Maine Coast Waldorf School in Freeport won her second straight individual championship. Her time of 19:05.87 was nearly 10 seconds ahead of runner-up Molly McGrail of Maranacook.
In Class B, Falmouth sophomore Sofie Matson slipped and fell at the starting line but rebounded to post the fastest girls time of the day regardless of class, 18:33.51, and capture her second straight individual title. She bested runner-up Kate Tugman of Gorham by nearly 16 seconds.
Bonny Eagle was paced by freshman Delaney Hesler (fourth overall) and senior Ami Beaumier, two of five Scots in the top 30.
Bonny Eagle finished with 63 points, comfortably ahead of Falmouth and 2017 state champion Camden Hills of Rockport. Those teams both scored 106 points, with Falmouth finishing second by virtue of the sixth-runner tiebreaker.
Senior Augusta Stockman led Camden Hills with a ninth-place finish, while freshman Elsie Hildreth was 12th.
