AUGUSTA – Some athletes have to overcome obstacles to compete. Others overcome them to excel.
Adam Deveau is one that excels.
The Mt. Blue runner ran through the asthma that he deals with every day at the KVAC cross country championships Friday at the University of Maine at Augusta. He also fell, but got back up and captured his second consecutive individual championship and help his team repeat, as well.
The Cougars nipped the Lewiston Blue Devils 61-64 for the Class A title. Edward Little placed third with 83 points.
While the Cougars didn’t run as well as they had hoped, Deveau turned in another strong performance.
“He ran very well,” said Mt. Blue coach Kelley Cullenberg. “He was questioning his asthma with the (damp) weather and he actually fell. He did a face plant and lost a little ground.”
“It was really wet,” said Deveau. “It was something else to think about. I knew it was going to be a hard race with (Tom) Esponette and (Raleigh) Swan (of Mt. Ararat).”
Deveau and Edward Little’s Esponette went back-and-forth with the lead early in the race before Deveau created some breathing room.
“It was a big leap frog game,” said Esponette, who finished six seconds behind Deveau’s time of 17:04 as the runner-up. “Around the mile-and-a-half mark, he got a five-yard distance on me and kept that.”
The Lewiston Blue Devils continued their season-long surge and gave the Cougars more than they bargained for.
“They’ve been 40 points ahead of us all year,” said Lewiston coach Ray Putnam. “Everybody ran their hearts out today. I told the kids if we wanted to win today, we had to put three runners (Jeff Lucier, Bashier Mohamed and Robbie Leeman) ahead of (Mt. Blue’s Joe) Staples and we did. They did everything they could.”
Leavitt easily defeated runner-up Waterville by a 41-94 score in the Class B division. L.T. Sierra, Justin Fereshetian and Ryan Fitzsimmons finished 3-4-5.
“We had a good day,” said Leavitt coach Tina Meserve. “Our one and two runners were near the top. That sets the team up for a good, solid finish.”
Michael Howland won the individual crown with a time of 17:21.
Brunswick used its sixth runner to break a 51-51 tie with Mt. Ararat to take the girls Class A championship. Krystal Douglas and Oxford Hills’ Mandy Ivey met for the fourth time this season, with Douglas coming out on top in a time of 19:38. Douglas set a blistering pace from the outset and forced Ivey to play catch the rabbit. Heading into the woods near the 1-mile mark, Douglas held a seven-second lead. When the pair came out of the woods, Douglas’ lead had increased to more than 25 seconds.
“They’ve been really close,” Douglas said of her previous three races with Ivey (20:10). “Instead of staying with her, I went out and did my own strategy. It was better.”
Maranacook edged Waterville by a 42-43 margin to take home the Class B title. The tandem of Abby Pullen (19:50) and Jen Monsulick (20:03) swept the top two spots.
“This year, they’ve been a 1-2 punch,” said Maranacook coach Rosalea Kimball. “To have that combination on one team is great. They have a lot of drive and they work hard.”
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