St. Dom’s is adjusting to the Mountain Valley Conference quite well, thank you.

In their first season since moving from the Western Maine Conference, the St. Dom’s girls have positioned themselves among the elite MVC teams. They won a key meet at the University of Maine at Augusta and maintained their stride despite having runners shuttle in and out of the lineup with illnesses or injuries.

The Saints held off Lisbon to win a Sep. 16 meet at the University
of Maine at Augusta course, their most impressive meet of the year.

“We were all healthy,” Ryan Deschenes said. “We always seem to have one
of our top five missing. I think the UMaine-Augusta race has been our
best. The kids really like the course the best so far, and our girls
were all intact and had their best race so far.”

The Saints finished fifth in Class C last year and lost just one of
their top five runners. Junior Alyse Carney has stepped in to fill the
void and then some, with two first-place finishes and a second in her
first three races.  The first-year runner “hasn’t even reached her
potential yet and doesn’t realize how good she can become,” Deschenes said. “She’s just
going to get better and better each week and it’s going to be
interesting to watch.”

The boys team, led by Nathan Poulin, has made some strides in its goal to qualify for the state meet.

“The boys have been competitive for the most part,” Deschenes said.
“We still have some work to do if we want to reach states, but I think
we have a shot right there with the Hall-Dales and the Telstars that we
have to compete with for that last spot.”

While the Saints no longer
compete against some top Class B schools from the WMC, facing top Class
C programs such as Boothbay, Monmouth and Lisbon on a weekly basis more
than makes up for it, Deschenes said.  The MVC courses have also tested them unlike virtually anything they saw in the WMC.

“They feel the courses are a lot harder,” Deschenes said. “I think last year in the Western Maine Conference they
had a lot of easier courses. This year, there are more gradual hills,
there are more true 5k’s and the courses have been harder for them so
far.”

“Hopefully once the conference championships and the
regionals come around, it will make us more prepared and ready to
compete at a high level,” he added.

Festival of Champions approaches

The state’s largest meet of the year will happen this Saturday in Belfast. The 8th Annual Maine XC Festival of Champions will attract 1,300 runners from 58 schools around the state of Maine and Canada to Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast.

The 5k course is the same used for the 2008 Eastern Maine Regional and State meets. The race features a unique format involving three boys and three girls races (unseeded, freshman and seeded) of 150 to 200 runners each. Runners are seeded based on their predicted (by their coaches) 5k time, giving them an opportunity to compete against those with similar skills.  Team scores are calculated based on times, with the top five runners from each team, regardless of which race they run, figuring in the final scoring. The top seven will be scored by the computer in case of disqualification. 

The race will include seven of the top 10 ranked girls’ teams and eight of the top 10 boys’ teams from the latest Maine coaches’ poll. Joining Dr. JH Gillis High School of Antigonish, Nova Scotia at the start line will be defending girls’ champion Scarborough, as well as Edward Little, Lewiston, Lisbon, Monmouth, Mt. Blue, Oak Hill, Oxford Hills and Winthrop. Local runners expected to compete for individual honors are Melody Lam and Kelton Cullenberg of Mt. Blue, who finished sixth and ninth, respectively, last year.

Past winners include Mohamed Noor of Lewiston (2007), Mandy Ivey of Oxford Hills (2005) and Lily Hanstein of Mt. Blue (2003).

The competition begins with the girls’ unseeded race at 11:30 a.m.

 Dunn deal

Sorrel Dunn of Oxford Hills is the top local runner of the week, winning meets at Cony and Oxford Hills. The junior won last Friday’s race in Augusta in 21:15.94, besting Brewer’s Sara Chavarie by less than six seconds in a big meet that also included  Messalonskee, Belfast, Edward Little, Lewiston, Gardiner, Hampden, and Leavitt. Dunn then defended her home course against Edward Little and Lewiston with a winning time of 21:49, 53 seconds better than EL’s Abigail Hart. Hart led a 2, 3, 4,5 pack that gave the Red Eddies the team victory.

Sadam Abdi won the boys’ meet in South Paris, finishing in 17:37, 36 seconds ahead of teammate Faisal Noor. The Red Eddies placed five of the top seven finishers to top Oxford Hills.