BELFAST — Sofie Matson had already won two Festival of Champions girls titles. But as it turned out, there was still something else for the Falmouth junior to accomplish.
Matson won for the third straight time at the massive meet in Belfast, and this time set an event record in the process with her time of 17:35.91.
“I’m definitely a lot further along this year than I was last year,” Matson said. “I wasn’t used to kind of pushing myself. This year, I’m trying to do that a little bit more and I think that’s helped me run faster times.”
Siona Chisholm of JH Gillis High School in Nova Scotia was second at 18:08.60, followed by Ava Thurston of Harwood Union (Vt.) at 18:16.72, Falmouth’s Karley Piers at 18:23.22 and Maine Coast Waldorf’s Olivia Reynolds at 18:42.
Mt. Blue’s Kahryn Cullenberg had the best area girls finish, placing 22nd overall, while teammate Emma Charles came in 30th. Edward Little freshman Payton Bell took 35th, and Poland’s Olivia Ouellette and Mia Turkington placed 43rd and 45th, respectively.
Brunswick’s Will Shaughnessy won the boys race, coming in at 15:32.86. Bangor sophomore Daniel McCarthy (15:41.72) was second, followed by Falmouth’s Ben Potter (15:45.99), Cape Elizabeth’s Jack Bassett (15:50.36) and Falmouth’s Ben Greene (15:59.17).
“I felt comfortable making a big move around the mile, or even sooner,” Shaughnessy said, “and, I don’t know, I just never looked back. I went for it.”
St. Dom’s Mark D’Alessandro was the area’s top boys finisher, coming in 50th. Winthrop freshmen James Cognata placed 65th overall.
Shaughnessy’s win was only the start for the Dragons. Brunswick also got a seventh-place finish from Tyler Patterson, a 14th-place finish from Joey Valliere and a win in the freshman race from Eli Palmer (17:18.55), lifting it to 105 points and a team win over York (192), Bangor (197), Scarborough (225) and Falmouth (292).
Harwood Union (151) had the best girls team score, followed by Bonny Eagle (153), JH Gillis (154), Cumberland, R.I. (208) and Scarborough (315).
“You’re just watching people warm up and you’re seeing how great the other athletes are,” Brunswick coach Dan Dearing said. “To beat these teams is quite an accomplishment. Anything can happen week to week, this was our day and it’s really humbling to win something like this, because the competition is so good.”
There wasn’t much drama in the girls race — Matson saw to that.
“I try not to think about (being the favorite),” she said. “I’m mostly running my own race and doing what I set out to do.”
On Saturday, that meant gunning for the meet record time of 17:57, set in 2012 by Waterville’s Bethanie Brown.
“I definitely had the meet record in mind. … I knew I could definitely go under that,” said Matson, who had a season-best time of 17:29 during a race at Gorham. “Right from the beginning, I wanted to get out fast. I find that when I do that, it help set the tone for the rest of the race.”
She had no trouble maintaining that pace, and ended up with the second-fastest time recorded at the Belfast course. Only Manchester (N.H.) West’s Julia Robitaille (17:31 in 2017) was faster.
“This has always been one of my favorite meets. I love the size of it, I love the course. It has really great energy,” Matson said. “It’s definitely a little nerve-wracking, but at a bigger meet I usually perform better, I think.”
She had a teammate not far behind finishing close behind — Piers, who won the Beach to Beacon HS Mile in August, improved her time from last year’s ninth-place finish by 56 seconds.
“I knew that the field was going to be pretty good, and the start is always kind of tough to get out, but I just went out and tried to find a good place with some other girls,” Piers said. “(Sofie and I) push each other all the time. It’s awesome to look up to her.”
Like Matson with the girls, Shaughnessy began the day as the favorite in the boys event — not that he didn’t feel he had something to prove.
“There was a little bit of pressure,” he said. “There had been some speculation from others that the course I run at Brunswick was a short course, so I kind of felt the need to validate that today. I just wanted to do the best I could, come away with the win and accomplish that.”
He did just that — even though McCarthy, who won the freshman race last year, came on strong at the end.
“Of all the runners in this field, I was scared of him the most,” Shaughnessy said. “I’ll see him many times again. … He’s a monster. He’s just so big. He’s a giant person. He’s just terrifying.”
McCarthy, meanwhile, had no idea coming in how close he’d be to the front.
“I’m psyched. I’m really happy. I was not expecting that,” he said. “I just put it all out there and went for it. After Mile 1, I was like, ‘Oh no, I can’t hold on to this for much longer.’ And somehow I found something in me to be able to keep going until my adrenaline kicked in for the end.”
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