CAPE ELIZABETH—Some world-class runners will head to Cape Elizabeth on Saturday for the annual TD Beach to Beacon 10K race, but on Friday afternoon it will be Maine’s top high school runners who will take center stage.
The Beach to Beacon High School Mile will take place inside Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth on Friday with the boys race starting at 4 p.m. and the girls race scheduled for a 4:15 p.m. start.
Four local runners will compete in the race with Massabesic’s Matt Pooler and Jeffery Waters, Thornton Academy’s
Massabesic’s Matt Pooler competes in a relay at the York County meet
this past spring. Pooler will be one of four locals running the Beach
to Beacon High School Mile Friday.
Landon Heidrich and Wells’ Griffin Allaire all registered for the event.
“It’s going to be a really fast race,” said Pooler, who will be a junior at Massabesic this fall. “It has a lot of really elite high school runners running with (Mt. Ararat’s) Lisandro (Berry-Gaviria) who won cross country states last year and also won the mile at (outdoor track) states. There are really fast runners in that group.”
Pooler is excited to be running the race with a high school teammate.
“He’s a really good runner. I’ve run with him at practice quite a bit and I can pace off him really well. He seems to do really well when the pressure is on. It will be fun to run with him,” said Pooler of Waters.
The Massabesic standout is hoping to make the move to the actual Beach to Beacon next summer.
“I’m hoping to run it (next year),” said Pooler, who would love a chance to run against some of the nation’s top runners. “I mean I’m just a kid from Massabesic running high school and running with some of those guys would just be crazy.”
Headlining the main event this weekend will be Olympian Molly Huddle and Maine native Ben True, who won the event back in 2016.
There will be more than 6,500 runners competing in the event which was founded by Olympic hero Joan Benoit Samuelson. Proceeds from the annual race go to WinterKids, which is a non-profit helping Maine children stay active and healthy during the winter. For more information go to www.beach2beacon.org.
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
