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BY GARY HAWKINS
Staff Writer 10/31/2008

enlarge Staff photo by Thomas Michael Corcoran

GOING FOR IT: Erskine Academy’s Sam Seekins, center, second from left, the pack at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships at the University of Maine at Augusta. Seekins won the Eastern Class B boys race last weekend and will contend at the state meet Saturday. Also competing is Mt. Blue’s Kelton Cullenberg, third from left, who finished third in the Eastern Class A boys race.

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Staff Writer

Team and individual titles will go on the line Saturday as high school runners test the fast course at Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast at the state cross country championships.

Half the teams in the field, including Mt. Blue, tested the same course last week at the Eastern Regionals. The Mt. Blue girls finished second to Brewer in that race and hope to repeat or better their times Saturday.

"I'm pleased with how my girls performed at regionals," Mt. Blue coach Kelley Cullenberg said. "For the most part they had lifetime bests. We're really shooting at trying to qualify for the New Englands."

The top girls and boys teams in each of the three classes qualify for the New England championships, scheduled Nov. 8 in Manchester, N.H., as well as the next three teams with the best times regardless of class. So do the top finishers in each class and the next 22 best overall times. Qualifying for the New Englands as a team would be a first for Mt. Blue.

"There are a lot of good teams," Cullenberg said. "It's an outside shot."

Mt. Blue junior Melody Lam won the Eastern Class A race last week, but Kennebunk freshman Abbi Leonardi, who won the Western Class A meet, is the prohibitive favorite this week.

"She's definitely a different caliber," Cullenberg said of Leonardi. "If conditions are good, Abbi could potentially go sub 18 (minutes)."

Lam, however, has a good shot at qualifying individually as does Mt. Blue junior Kelton Cullenberg, who finished third in the boys race last week.

For a few teams and individuals, Saturday's meet is a new experience. The Winslow and Erskine boys both qualified for the Class B meet for the first time in recent memory.

"It's the first time in my 10 years of coaching," Erskine coach Bryant Bourgoin said.

The Eagles also have an individual contender in junior Sam Seekins, who won the Eastern Regional last week.

"He runs year round," Bourgoin said. "He put together his own summer program and just ran and ran."

Seven of the 11 members of the Winslow boys team are sophomores while lone girls qualifier Adrianna Walsh is also a sophomore.

"A lot of the kids ran personal records on Saturday," second-year coach Christina Bertolaccini said. "It's exciting. The goal this year was just to make it."

Sophomore Jocelyn Laweryson will represent Valley High School in the Class C race. She finished second to heavy favorite Adele Espy of Waynflete last week.

"She works hard at it," Valley coach Luke Hartwell said of Laweryson. "I don't remember a girl (from Valley) doing that well at the regionals."

Gary Hawkins -- 621-5638

ghawkins@centralmaine.com

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