Viking boys, MDI girls capture 57th Sectional Quaglia, Peverada collect individual titles

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OLD TOWN – Casey Quaglia knew exactly what he had to do to outfox Sam Sheehan at Saturday’s 57th Old Town Sectional: Let Sheehan set the pace, stay with him as long as he could, and use his greatest weapon in the last quarter-mile, his speed.

The plan worked to perfection, as the Bangor senior outsprinted the Caribou senior on the dirt track at Victory Field to win the boys varsity race in the cross country invitational in 16 minutes, 18.61 seconds over the 5-kilometer course.

Sheehan finished in 16:19.66.

Sheehan’s Vikings got the better of Quaglia’s Rams in the team competition, however, as Caribou tucked four runners in the top 10 to win with 34 points to Bangor’s 54.

Brewer had three runners in the top 12 – all underclassmen – en route to a third-place finish with 78 points. Hampden Academy scored 122 to finish fourth and Orono 138 to finish fifth out of nine scoring teams.

The Mount Desert Island Trojans won the girls meet.

Sheehan led for a great part of the race, but Quaglia’s plan was to let the Viking standout set the pace.

“Last time I tried to stay with him through two miles, and this time I tried to stay with him through three miles,” Quaglia said. “I knew if I was with him at the three-mile mark I had a great shot at taking it.”

Quaglia pulled ahead just before hitting the track.

“He had the lead the whole way until coming out of the woods,” Quaglia said. “I took the lead on a turn and he came right back and took the lead again. Then I just waited until we hit the track.”

Despite Bangor’s 1-3 finish of Quaglia and Riley Masters, Caribou had the stronger pack.

“We know that not one person makes a team, it’s a group effort, and we just have such a good group,” said Caribou assistant coach P.J. Gorneault, who was filling in for head coach Roy Alden, who was watching his son, Jeff, in a meet at Colby College.

Spencer McElwain, Stefan Ciszewski, Drew Freme and Jordan Powers went 4-7-8-13 for the Vikes, and all five Caribou runners finished ahead of Bangor’s fourth.

Steven Melbourne finished 16th and Josh Tardif 31st to round out Caribou’s lineup.

Gorneault knows the Vikings can’t take Bangor for granted.

“They’re definitely a strong team, and our kids know they’re getting better and better with each race,” he said.

Rams coach Ray Cook concurred.

“At the Ellsworth and Caribou invitationals we were about 6 to 8 points apart,” he said. “We’re creeping up there.”

Other individuals in the top 10 were Brewer’s Evan Taylor and Travis Blackmer in fifth and sixth, Matthieu Nadeau of Orono ninth and Bangor’s Stephen Salinas 10th.

In the girls meet, MDI placed all of its five scorers in the top 14 to nip John Bapst of Bangor 43 points to 55. Old Town scored 97 to finish third, Hampden was fourth with 124 and Brewer fifth with 130.

HA’s Molly Peverada took the individual title in 19:23 while Old Town’s Hilary Maxim was second in 19:40.

The defending Penobscot Valley Conference champion Trojans appeared to be in trouble early, as the Crusaders had a pack of runners ahead of MDI’s pack.

The Trojans, led by Heather Spurling’s third-place finish, made up the ground in the woods.

“Our strategy today was to just go out controlled then take people on in the second mile,” said MDI fourth runner Amanda Ohmeis, who finished 14th.

Sue Falt and Jessica Swanson cracked the top 10 for MDI, finishing sixth and eighth, while Liela Banks was 12th, Mackenzie Curtis 15th and Addie Maxwell 23rd.

MDI lost last year’s top runner, Emily Farley, to graduation but Falt said that Spurling has done well in taking on that role.

“Emily’s gone but we’ve got Heather to fill her shoes,” Falt said.

She added that MDI’s pack this year is stronger than that of last year, when the Trojans qualified for the New England championships.

“Our pack this year is stronger [than last year], we have an awesome pack,” Falt said. “It’s early in the season, we’ve still got some secrets to pull.”

All five MDI scorers finished ahead of John Bapst’ fifth, a key element to winning in cross country. The Trojans’ pack time, the difference between the first and fifth runners, was a stingy 1:35.

“The pack is back now,” Falt said.

Other top-10 individual finishers were Eliza Tibbits of Old town in fourth, Hannah Saunders of Caribou in fifth and Adrea Piazza, Maren Askins and Kim Spencer of John Bapst in seventh, ninth and 10th.