10/21/2007
Silver Hunt and Melody Lam went 1-2 in the girls race to lead Mt. Blue to a third place finish in the Eastern Maine Class A regional cross country championships Saturday.
The Mt. Blue boys finished second to Lewiston in the Class A race while Brunswick won the girls race. In Class B, Ellsworth won the boys race and Mt. Desert Island the girls, while the Foxcroft boys and Mattanawcook girls won in Class C.
Half the teams in each race qualified for next Saturday's state championship meet at Leavitt High School in Turner. Additionally, the top 20 individual finishers in Class A and B and the top 30 in Class C qualified for the state meet.
Despite sloppy conditions at Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast, Hunt posted the fastest girls time of the day, 19 minutes, 22.94 seconds over the 3.1 mile course, more than a minute ahead of Lam. "She had a lifetime best by a ton," Mt. Blue coach Kelley Cullenberg said. "For 5K, her best mile average was 6:38. She ran 6:14s today."
With the Mt. Blue girls running the fifth of six races on the course, Hunt used spikes for the first time in her career.
"Being the last race of the day, I'm not sure how she would have run (without them)," Cullenberg said.
As they did at last week's Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference meet, Mt. Blue finished exactly 40 points behind the Blue Devils on Saturday. Mt. Blue senior Eric Marceau placed fourth, 22 seconds behind winner Mohammed Noor of Lewiston who won the race. Mt. Blue sophomore Kelton Cullenberg finished sixth overall and set a lifetime best in the process.
In the Class B race, the Waterville boys finished seventh out of 15 teams to qualify for the state meet. Senior Evan Vashon led the Purple Panthers with a seventh place finish. The Waterville girls finished ninth out of 12 teams and did not qualify for the states.
In the Western Maine regionals in Cumberland, the Madison girls finished fourth in Class C to qualify for the state meet. Sarah Kirkwood led the Bulldogs with a 16th place finish and Danielle Hebert placed 21st.
Winthrop won the Class C boys title while Waynflete captured the Class C girls championship. Class A titles went to the Portland boys and Scarborough girls while Cape Elizabeth captured both Class B titles.
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