Cross Country
York cross-country travels to Gray-New Gloucester and Manchester
By Kevin Higgins
YORK - On Wednesday, Sept. 20, the girls' cross-country team and 15 members of the boys' team traveled north to Gray-New Gloucester High School to compete in an invitational meet.This course is possibly the hilliest in Maine. In fact, the same hill runners labor on is actually home to a cellular communication tower. However, the Wildcat girls did not seem to notice this fact.
Lacey Cartier and Chelsea Jordan took first and second, respectively, with Lacey setting a new course record. Annie Boardman, Molly Carl and Reaha Goyetche then came across in sixth, seventh and eighth. This quick finish earned York a mere 24 points, easily beating Waynfleet with 56, Lake Region with 70, Gray-New Gloucester with 89 and St Dominic, 115.
Monique Boutin, 15th, and Ashley Meade, 23rd, completed the top seven. Kylie Vallee, 24th, Lindsay Putnam, 25th, and Glenn Swanson, 26th, came one after the other, rounding out the top 10.
With the top 21 boys' runners not competing, York still put up a very respectable showing, placing sixth overall.
Peter Thibault came in first for York in 19th place. Mike Lapointe placed second, in 25th place.
After Lapointe, York displayed that wonderful quality of running in a pack. Tim Gelinas, Dave Canatta, Taran Armstrong, Jack Carley, and Dom Ferrande took 30th through 34th places while Matt Maertens, 36th, Chance Greenier, 42nd, and Zack Brooks, 55th, completed the top 10.
Also running for York were Quinn Parulis, 57th, Alex Zotos, 58th, Peter Betts, 60th, Billy Kennedy, 61st, and Hayden Brown, 65th.
On Saturday, Sept. 23, the 21 York boys who did not run in Gray headed over to Manchester, N.H., for an enormous invitational meet. Over 2000 runners competed in freshman, junior varsity, and small, large and elite school varsity races.
The York freshman placed third in their 2.1-mile, 245-runner field. Ryan James placed eighth, the best York finish of the day. Soon followed Dan Herbein, 24th, Tristan Palhof, 28th, and Alex Mosier, 39th, all in a nice 17-second space. Josh Herbein was the fifth scorer in 67th place. Also running were Jim Cassotis, 81st, and Jason Gorman, 146th.
The second race of the day for the Wildcats was the junior varsity race, this time 3.1 miles long with 386 runners. Nick Lumenello came across the line first for York, in 33rd place. Ryan Means and Luke Graziano placed 103rd and 122nd, respectively. Close on their heels was Jason Roy in 137th place. Nat Freeman came in next, in 174th place. Jimmy Kennedy and Brian Farrell complete the junior varsity squad, placing 215th and 238th, respectively.
The final race of the day for York was the varsity race. Coach Ted Hutch had the seniors, along with Stuart Mason, run this race, together with 213 other runners. Nick McMahon, 45th, had the fastest time for the Wildcats of the day. Next in for York were Andrew Potter, 114th, Matt Wagner, 122nd, and Tom Ciampa, 131st, all in another 17-second span. Kevin Higgins, 154th, and Nate Hirst, 155th, passed at least 30 runners in the last quarter mile for their consecutive finish. Stuart Mason, 210th, completed the varsity squad.
This week it is back to regular season meets for the cross-country runners. On Friday, Sept. 29, the boys and girls head up to the Twin Brook recreational facility to take on Greely, Gray-New Gloucester and Richmond.
