The course at Falmouth Community Park was muddy and slippery Friday, but the fleet-footed Cape Elizabeth cross country teams withstood the elements and won both the boys and girls titles at the Western Maine Conference championship meet.
“We’re quite satisfied coming out with a victory,” said Dave Weatherbie, the Capers’ boys coach. “Any time that your top competition is hosting a meet it’s a little nerve-wracking, and Falmouth has been getting better and closing the gap on us. We expected a real test from them today, and from York.”
The coach’s concerns were well-placed, as Falmouth (63) and York (81) finished behind the Capers (46), who had three runners among the top ten.
Lake Region’s Miles Bartlett covered the 3.1 miles in 16:10, good for first place and a course record. According to Dan Dors, the Lakers’ coach, it was the fourth consecutive record that the senior set, having also bested course marks at Cape, Gray-New Gloucester and on his home route.
“I knew it was going to be wet so I wanted to take it easy and pick it up toward the end,” said Bartlett. When he saw some runners narrowing the gap, he exerted himself in strategic bursts. “Those three pushes really just opened up the lead so much that I could relax for the rest of the race and take it easy without cramping up.”
John Forcella (16:29) and Ethan Shaw (16:30), both of Falmouth, were next across the finish line, followed by the Capers’ Graham Egan (16:34).
“I was going for top five and I finished fourth,” said Egan, “so I was happy with that. I would have liked to finish ahead of Falmouth’s second guy, but he ran a good race.”
Stanis Moody-Roberts (7th, 16:54), Colman Hatton (9th, 16:56), Curtis Dulac (11th, 17:17) and Brendan Flynn (15th, 17:36) rounded out Cape’s top five.
“It was slippery. I saw a couple kids fall and some jams,” Hatton said. “I don’t have a lot of experience, so each week I’m going to be running faster, but this was a tougher course.”
Quite a few of the athletes took spills along the route, while others had mud splattered on their shins.
“The course was really wet and slippery,” said Cape’s Erin Gross (20:11), who finished fifth overall in the girls race. “There was one hill where I almost fell down.”
Her teammate, Clare Egan (19:27), broke the tape about a half-minute ahead of her nearest competitors, York’s Lacey Cartier (19:54) and Falmouth’s Kelsy Nichols (19:59).
“I wanted to see if I could push myself because I know I’m going to have to do that in the next few races,” said Egan. “I knew there were a couple girls in this race who have really good kicks, so I wanted to make sure I had a decent lead on them.”
Marisa Turesky (11th, 21:00), Caitlin Pomeroy (20th, 22:01) and Melissa Stack (21st, 22:02) were among the top finishers for the Capers.
“I feel very happy about my time,” Turesky said. “The first and second mile went by pretty quickly and the last mile kind of moseyed along a bit slower than the first two.”
The Cape girls (58) held off Freeport (68) and York (74) and nine other squads for the victory.
“I knew that Freeport would give us a run for our money,” said Mary Ann Doss, the Capers’ girls coach. “We were tired today. We always train through this race because the end of the season is most important to us, the state meet. This week we trained extremely hard and it showed.”
The regional meet will be held Saturday at Twin Brooks in Cumberland, but both Cape Elizabeth teams are focused on the Oct. 29 state meet at Leavitt.
“This is the best team I’ve had since I’ve been running,” said Clare Egan. “Two years ago we had three out of the top 10 at the state meet, but never had the depth we have this year. Our goal is to win states. There’s a lot of good competition out there, but if we each have the race of our lives, we can do it.”
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