Both the Scarborough Red Storm girls and boys cross country lineups took first at Saturday’s Class A state championship meet in Belfast, the former edging past Massabesic 92-96 and the latter defeating Falmouth 73-87.
Interestingly, neither Scarborough squad placed a runner in the top three – simply a surefire indication that these were team victories in the truest sense: Every individual’s performance mattered, as no superstar emerged on the day to singlehandedly elevate the entire roster.
“We knew Massabesic was our ultimate challenge,” said Scarborough girls coach Ron Kelly. “The numerous times we’ve gone against them this year, we’ve been very close to them. At Regionals it was again close, 11 points. But I felt they would run better on the Regionals course, because they seem to do much better on the hillier course.”
Whereas Twin Brook in Cumberland, where Regionals were held, is riddled with elevation changes, the Belfast course is much flatter, a difference that can greatly impact outcomes.
“Basically, exactly what we needed to have happen, happened,” Kelly said. “Top four were all between 11th and 20th place, and my fifth girl, Morgan McKeown, came close enough to keep us in the lead.”
“I was incredible impressed with all seven of our runners at the state meet,” said Red Storm boys coach Jim Harmon. “We ran to win at the Twin Brook regional meet last week and finished second to a strong Falmouth team, by three points and an average of one second per runner behind Falmouth. So we knew for us to win at States we had to dig even deeper and run even harder.
“This team did [that], and all seven ran incredible races – maybe the races of their lives so far – to win the meet by 14 points and an average of seven seconds per runner ahead of Falmouth.”
“Falmouth is a great team,” Harmon said, “coached by excellent and very experienced coaches, so beating them by that much after just losing to them was the most impressive state meet win I’ve ever seen.”
Top individual laurels went to Halee Phelps of Westbrook and Aaron Willingham of Mt. Blue.
“She ran one of the best races I have ever seen!” Westbrook head coach Tim Even said of Phelps. “Smart, aggressive, and pretty much the race of her life. Perfect way for our senior to go out.”
Top 10 girls teams:
1. Scarborough, 92
2. Massabesic, 96
3. Hampden, 145
4. Brunswick, 149
5. Falmouth, 151
6. South Portland, 164
7. Marshwood, 168
8. Westbrook, 208
9. Windham, 211
10. Cheverus, 273
Top 10 girls and selected others:
1. Halee Phelps, Westbrook, 19:10.42
2. Maddy Doyle, Marshwood, 19:12.53
3. Anne Guadalupi, Cony, 19:18.90
4. Tessa Cassidy, Brunswick, 19:29.11
5. Katherine Leckbee, Mt. Ararat, 19:33.24
6. Elizabeth Labun, Hampden, 19:34.88
7. Casey Loring, South Portland, 19:46.78
7. Anna Slager, Gorham, 19:46.78
9. Tiffany Taber, Brunswick, 19:54.66
10. Gabriella Pabst, 20:00.62
11. Bethany Sholl, Scarborough, 20:06.38
12. Serena Mckenzie, South Portland, 20:06.62
14. Laura Volan, Scarborough, 20:11.58
17. Marisa Carbone, Scarborough, 20:13.25
18. Samantha Saraceno, Scarborough, 20:14.32
29. Julia Rand, Windham, 20:52.88
30. Amanda Turner, Windham, 20:54.22
Top 10 boys teams:
1. Scarborough, 73
2. Falmouth, 87
3. Massabesic, 89
4. Windham, 161
5. Hampden, 168
6. Mt. Blue, 168
7. Messalonskee, 193
8. Gorham, 199
9. Brewer, 261
10. Lewiston, 261
Top 10 boys and selected others:
1. Aaron Willingham, Mt. Blue, 16:00.62
2. Bryce Murdick, Falmouth, 16:01.12
3. Iid Sheikh-Yusuf, Deering, 16:01.73
4. Jacob Terry, Scarborough, 16:05.18
5. Dan Lesko, Mt. Blue, 16:22.87
6. Jesse Southard, Gorham, 16:30.66
7. Michael Aboud, Massabesic, 16:33.34
8. Osman Doorow, Lewiston, 16:35.22
9. Paul Casavant, Hampden, 16:35.82
10. Yahya Hussein, Deering, 16:38.16
14. Connor Doherty, Scarborough, 16:44.58
16. Colin Tardiff, Scarborough, 16:46.77
17. Andrew Sholl, Scarborough, 16:51.60
18. Ben Breton, Windham, 16:54.10
22. Jacob Bloom, Scarborough, 17:01.60
27. Ben Foster, Gorham, 17:16.66
28. Gavin Damian-Loring, South Portland, 17:17.64
Halee Phelps rounds a bend in the recent Class A Western Regional meet at Twin Brook in Cumberland on Oct. 25. She won the state championship in Belfast on Saturday.
The Scarborough boys and girls cross-country runners pose with their team awards. In front, from left, are Connor Doherty, Colin Tardiff, Jacob Terry, Bethany Sholl, Laura Volan, Marisa Carbone and Hannah Griffin. In back, from left, are Jacob Bloom, Maxim Doiron, Sean McGovern, Andrew Sholl, Sophie Lawsure, Morgen McKeown are Samantha Saraceno.
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