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BANGOR – The way she’s running, not even a mucky course or gusty winds could slow down Old Town’s Cassie Hintz during Saturday’s Penobscot Valley Conference cross country championships.
“Well, it [the course] was a lot better than I thought it was going to be as of this morning,” the Indians’ junior said with a chuckle after destroying the course record Brewer’s Heather Clark set in 2002 with an impressive time of 17 minutes, 30 seconds over the 3.06-mile loop behind Bangor Mental Health Institute.
In the team ranks, the host John Bapst of Bangor girls continued their excellent season, riding the 2-3 finish of Maddy Glover (19:01.8) and Courtney Martin (19:05) to a 41-87 victory over runner-up Old Town. MDI finished third with 97, Hampden fourth with 133 and Bangor’s 143 rounded out the top five.
The Crusader boys won a very close boys meet by just 14 points over the runner-up Broncos, 74-88. Ellsworth was third with 94, Caribou fourth with 103 and MDI fifth with 140.
The BMHI course isn’t the easiest in the state, much less after Friday’s steady rains gave it a good soak. Hintz, however, knew exactly where the hills are and had a strategy.
“That sideways hill in the second mile is tough,” Hintz said referring to a gradual climb just beyond the woods. “I didn’t know how fast I’d be able to go in the conditions.”
Her time would have placed her seventh in the boys meet.
Hintz was also “very happy with” her team’s second-place finish as well, as Old Town freshman Ashleigh Madden bolstered the Indians with a 10th-place finish in 20:44.6.
The Crusaders, however, won the meet in the way good teams win championship meets: with solid pack times – the time difference between the team’s first- and fifth-place runenrs. JB’s pack time was a solid 2:23, while Nicole Lavertu (7th, 20:12.4), Eve Jordan (15th, 21:24.3) and Denise Miller (16th, 21:24.7), the 3-5 runners, all finished ahead of Old Town’s third runner.
Vanessa Weber was 22nd (21:44.5) and Maggie Jones 28th (22:02.1) to round out the Crusader runners.
“They certainly ran to expectations. They have those of themselves,” John Bapst coach John Emerson said. “We’ve been ailing a little bit with some colds going on, so we’ve been balancing training and rest.”
The cold bug bit Glover last week, as she didn’t compete in last week’s Pendale Invitational, but the Crusaders junior ran a solid pace of 6:13.2 a mile while Martin’s pace was 6:14.2.
With the regional and state meets the next consecutive Saturdays, Emerson said his team needs to meet its training goal this week.
“We’ve got to have a really good training week, and they know that,” he said. “We’ll have about 30 miles in by Friday.”
Rounding out the top five individuals in the girls’ race were Molly Peverada of Hampden (19:38.6) and Ellsworth’s Lacie Dow (19:57).
In the boys meet, the Crusaders turned in an outstanding effort, but they were still surprised when they headed to the results table after they finished.
“We figured if everybody ran well and paid attention to what was going on in front of them then we had a chance,” said Emerson. “They were surprised into silence when they went over to read the scores. I’m just as pleased as can be.”
Leading the way for JB was Ryan Lena, who finished second, just five seconds behind race winner Corey DeWitt of Ellsworth (16:55.5) while Bapst’s David McCourt was fifth (17:18.5).
“[Ryan] Lena came up out of that middle mile in a strong position, and David McCourt was recovering a little bit [from the hills],” Emerson said. “When you get over that hill and you’re still running strong what you see is a mile.”
Zach Whited finished 13th (17:41.6) for the Crusaders, Andrew Willey 23rd (18:26.2) and Andrew Askins 31st (18:37.4) to round out the JB scorers.
Eagles’ sophomore DeWitt was in the midst of a strong pack that included Lexi Wakeling of Orono (3rd, 17:08.4), Travis Vicary of Old Town (4th, 17:14.8) and Caribou teammates Sam Sheehan (6th, 17:22.5) and Cale Dubay (9th, 17:33.9).
DeWitt, however, took control over the middle miles and never looked back, using a mile pace of 5:33.1 to finish first compared to Lena’s pace fo 5:33.4
In Class C competition, the Central Red Devil boys from Corinth overcame a strong 1-9 finish from Orono’s Wakeling and Jay Lewey (18:50) to earn Class C nods.
Top runner Thomas Lamarche finished fifth (18:34.4) to lead Central past the Red Riots, 69-77. Sumner of East Sullivan was fourth with 85 while Lee Academy (89) finished fourth. Mattanawcook of Lincoln rounded out the top five with 123.
Also posting strong races for Central were Michael Julian in 12th (19:19.7), Jonathan Perkins in 15th (19:29) and Ray Boulier and Sean Giroux in 18th (19:43.1) and 19th (19:43.5).
The girls meet went to the Pandas, who put six runners in the top 15 to edge Foxcroft 39-49 in the four-team field. The Tigers were third with 67 while George Stevens of Blue Hill fourth (69).
Brooke Harris led the way for LA in fifth (21:40.09) while Carrie Mallett (7th, 22:17.20), Kimmy Thurlow (8th, 22:39.43), Amanda Gifford (10th, 22:46.79) and Shelby Pickering (15th, 23:53.02) rounded out the scorers. Kerri Harris was three seconds behind Pickering in 16th.
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