Balentine, True eye berths in nationals Mainers set for Foot Locker XC event

While one local high school runner and her family will enjoy themselves in the Big Apple this weekend, the other is going on a “business trip,” but without a suit, tie or briefcase.

These two runners are Hampden Academy’s Molly Balentine and Greely of Cumberland Center’s Ben True, who are among a throng of Mainers who will converge on Van Cortland Park’s tough 5-kilometer loop for the Foot Locker Regional Cross Country Championships Saturday in New York City.

The girls seeded race will be run at 11:30 a.m. with the boys at 12:05 p.m..

The top eight boys and girls in the 32-team field will advance to the national championships, which will be held December 13 at Balboa Park in San Diego.

True, a senior, will try to become the first Mainer to advance since former Ellsworth star Louie Luchini in 1997-98. If he does, it’ll be the seventh time a Maine boy is San Diego-bound. Only four Maine girls have qualified for the nationals.

True will try once again to unseat Ahmed Haji of West Hartford, Conn. This is the same runner who handed True his only high school cross country loss in Maine, at the New Englands in Portland in 2002.

Top returnees include Hakon Devries of New York, who was second in last year’s race. Josh McDougal also of New York should also be back. Haji was seventh last year while True was fifth.

Hampden’s Balentine, who was 23rd at New Englands, is looking forward to her second appearance in the meet. “Her goal would be top 50. She was 23rd at New Englands, and now you’re adding New York, Massachusetts, Delaware and Pennsylvania,” said her father, Hampden coach Dick Balentine.

Massachusetts does not compete in the New Englands as a state, and have had some fine runners in the past.

The Balentines will make a “weekend out of it,” according to Dick Balentine. “We’re heading down Wednesday, and will hopefully spend a couple of nights in Times Square,” he said.

Balentine also said that they have tickets to a Christmas Spectacular on Friday, will attend the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, and hope to attend a Broadway play. “She’s really looking forward to it,” said Balentine.”

A plethora of Maine girls will join Balentine in the Big Apple, including Beth and Jessie Wilcox from Mount Ararat in Topsham and individual Class B state champ Elise Moody-Roberts of Cape Elizabeth, who could also contend for a berth in the nationals.

True’s only goal is to get back to San Diego. “The goal is just to qualify, nothing else,” he said. “I’m not aiming to go for the win.”

True feels like he’s in good shape, too.

“I’ve been doing a lot of speedwork latley,” he said. “I felt flat after New Englands, and didn’t have that extra gear I usually do. I’ve done lots of speedwork to get it back.”

Having seen the course before also helps. “If you’ve run it once, you know it enough,” said True. “It’s very similar to the [New Englands] course in Manchester, [N.H.].”

True has been doing most of that speed work without the guidance of his coach, David Dowling, who is busy guiding the fortunes of the Rangers’ indoor track and field teams. True is on the ski team.

“The MPA hands-off rule is just too bad,” he said of the Maine Principals’ Association “Hands-Off” period. Since True is on the ski team, Dowling cannot work with him but did give True workouts in advance.

True said that Belfast’s Levi Miller, Falmouth’s Brandon Bonsey and Eric Giddings of South Portland will run, along with his Greely teammate, Casey Diehl.