Paul Casavant from Hampden Academy and Tessa Cassidy of Brunswick took second in their respective races, but in doing so helped lead their teams to regional titles at Troy Howard Middle School.
Casavant finished a distant second to Lewiston’s Osman Doorow, crossing the line 25 seconds behind Doorow’s winning time of 15:40.39, but his Broncos team beat Bangor, 75-85. The Blue Devils were third, with 105 points.
“He’s been great,” Hampden boys coach Richard Balentine said of Casavant. “The guy from Lewiston is a really tough runner, and Paul was hanging with him for quite a while.”
Casavant was in a pack with Doorow, as well as Messalonskee’s Zachariah Hoyle, Edward Little’s Jacob Gamache and Mt. Ararat’s Cameron Meier, when the course brought the field back past the start/finish line in the first mile. It was at the end of that first mile, that the pack began to thin out.
“We stayed together the first mile, then I just took the lead,” Doorow said. “Casavant was behind me, and I was just pushing by myself.”
Doorow said he felt fairly confident about his chances of holding onto the win by the two-mile mark, and was happy with his winning time.
Balentine was also happy, as he his team won what he called, “a dog fight.”
“They knew it was going to be a tough battle between us, Bangor and Lewiston,” Balentine said. “They didn’t expect to win, they just knew it was going to be between us three, and take nothing for granted.”
Hoyle edged out Meier for third by .41 seconds, and Gamache finished in fifth. Hampden runners took the sixth and seventh spots (Wyatt Lord and Will Webb) to help secure its team win.
Mt. Blue (131 points), Brewer (144) and Brunswick finished in fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, to advance to next week’s state championship meet at Twin Brook in Cumberland.
The girls’ race wasn’t nearly as close in the team competition, but the individual battle needed all of 3.1 miles to be decided.
Cony’s Anne Guadalupi pulled away over the final lengths to beat Cassidy by 10 seconds. Mt. Ararat’s Katherine Leckbee was just a second back in third.
“It was nerve-wracking the entire time,” Guadalupi said. “I had to tell myself I wasn’t in pain to keep going. It was a back-and-forth. Someone told me it was like a cat and mouse. It was close basically the entire way.”
Guadalupi said it took all her mental strength to keep pushing over the final mile, and the race wore her out physically as well. She collapsed in pain after crossing the finish line in 19:10.24.
While Guadalupi took the individual honors, Cassidy’s Dragons team easily won the team title, beating second-place Mt. Blue, 55-82.
The Cougars beat Brunswick by a point in last weekend’s KVAC Championship meet.
“I think they expected to come do well,” said Brunswick girls coach Dave Deblois, who added that his team had a little incentive to win with revenge on its mind. “They were all in good physical shape this week. There was nobody not feeling good.”
Cony’s Talia Jorgensen finished fourth in the race to help the Rams take third in the team competition. Messalonskee’s Avery Brennan was fifth and Maggie Hickey was Mt. Blue’s top finisher in sixth.
Hampden Academy, Mt. Ararat and Lewiston finished in the top six in the 11-team competition to qualify for states.
Caribou won the Class B North boys’ title over Waterville and Belfast. Waterville’s Nick Dall won the race, but Caribou placed all of its top five runners in the top 10.
Those two schools switched places for the girls’ team championship, as Waterville topped Caribou. Waterville’s Lauren Brown won the race.
Orono swept the team titles in Class C North. The Red Riot girls placed runners in the top three for the win, led by Tia Tardy. Hannah Steelman was second, followed by Kassidy Dill. George Stevens Academy’s John Hassett won the individual boys’ title.
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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