BELFAST – All season long, Lewiston cross country coach Ray Putnam has been preparing his team to unseat Mt. Blue as the Eastern Maine champions.
Saturday, that goal became a reality.
Led by Bashir Mohamed’s surprising third-place finish, and a 44-second pack time of their five runners, the Blue Devils took home the Class A regional title at Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast.
The Blue Devils scored 56 points, Mt. Blue was second with 66 while Edward Little claimed third with 113.
“We started out in the first meet of the year and nobody knew who we were,” said Putnam. “It was a long-term plan all year long and it was a great day for Lewiston.”
Mohamed actually finished in front of KVAC champion Adam Deveau, of Mt. Blue, who came in fourth. George Foster and Jason Robustelli came in 15th and 17th as the fourth and fifth runners for Lewiston.
“It was George Foster that made the difference,” said Putnam. “We had no intentions but to win today.”
Mt. Blue had won the last two regional titles.
“I think everybody ran a decent race,” said Mt. Blue coach Kelley Cullenberg. “We didn’t get what we needed out of a couple of kids and I thought that was the difference. It might be a good thing. Now they know what they need to do next week.”
After winning the regional race in 2004 as a freshman, Edward Little’s Nick Kazar had spent much of this season in the shadows of Deveau and even Tom Esponette, his EL teammate. Saturday he broke out solidly to win the individual title in a time of 16:40.52.
“I noticed through the season I was going too fast,” said Kazar. “In the middle (of the race) I usually slow down. Today I took a chance and tried to pick it up in the middle.”
“He listened and learned,” said Edward Little coach Dan Campbell. “He did what we asked him to, and we got the old Nick back.”
In the girls’ Class A race, Brunswick (57 points), Hampden (73) and Mt. Ararat (93) claimed the top three spots. Mt. Ararat’s Krystal Douglas used the same strategy as she had in beating Oxford Hills’ Mandy Ivey in last week’s KVAC championship. Douglas jumped out to an early lead and was never threatened, although she collapsed as she crossed the finish line.
“Towards the end I didn’t have a lot left in me,” said Douglas who completed the course in a time of 19:02.7. “I think I started out too fast.”
Hampden’s Molly Peverada (19:07.26) took second with Ivey finishing third (19:14.14).
Ellsworth junior Corey DeWitt turned in the fastest time of the day (16:32.18) to lead his team to the B crown, defeating Caribou by a 48-67 margin. Leavitt was third with 85 points. The Hornets top runner Saturday was Justin Fereshetian, who finished sixth overall.
The Old Town girls beat Mt. Desert by a 61-69 score to win the B crown. Individually it was John Bapst’s Madeline Glover turning in the quickest girls’ time (18:53.29) on the day for the victory.
Renee LaFlamme won the girls’ C race with Lee taking the team title. Schenk’s Brian York won the boys C race and Orono the team championship.
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