AUGUSTA — Waterville’s Lauren Brown and Lewiston’s Osman Doorow breezed to victories at the Kennebec Valley Conference cross country championships Saturday on the hilly course at Cony High School.
Brown broke 20 minutes over the 3.1-mile course for the third time in her career while Doorow shattered the course record by 18 seconds, finishing in 16:38.1. Waterville won both the girls and boys Class B titles while Mt. Blue edged Brunswick by a point —70-71 —to win the girls Class A championship. The Cony girls finished third with 84 points. Hampden Academy won the Class A boys race.
Cony’s Anne Guadalupi finished first in the Class A girls race, run concurrently with the Class B girls, and second overall to Brown. Waterville freshman Nick Dall won the Class B boys race and placed sixth overall behind five Class A runners.
The course is a demanding one, beginning with a hill about 600 meters long about a mile and a quarter in.
“The secret to running well here is to run the hills,” Cony coach Shawn Totman said. “I know kids think it’s crazy but you’ve got to run the downhills, too.”
Brown took the lead early in the race and finished in 19:52.4, well ahead of Guadalupi’s 20:23.2
“I’ve only broken 20 minutes twice before in a 5K race,” Brown said. “So to do it on such a hilly course is awesome. I just try to go out as fast as I can and when I get to the hills go up them as fast as I can and just see what I have left at the end.”
Doorow was alone in front throughout his race, beating Ellsworth’s Paul Casavant, who finished second in 15:55.4. Both times beat the course record of 16:56 set last year by Mt. Blue’s Aaron Willingham. Messalonskee’s Zachariah Hoyle placed third in 17:30.2.
“Today my strategy was to win the KVACs and break the course record,’ said Osman, who won the prestigious Festival of Champions race earlier this year. “I took the lead and just (went) out by myself and pushed.”
Waterville coach Rob Stanton believes it’s been at least 10 years since his girls team won a KVAC title and nearly 30 for the boys. Junior Cecilia Morin took second in the B race for the Purple Panthers while Ella Ruehsen placed 10th. Merlina Peero (14th) and Alison Linscott (25th) rounded out the top five.
“We’ve been talking a lot lately with all the kids about putting yourself I the right position,” Waterville coach Rob Stanton said. “You put yourself in position enough times sooner of later good stuff happens.”
Dall’s time of 17:46 was three seconds ahead of Morse’s Christopher Wallfield to lead the Purple Panthers to a comfortable win over runner-up Belfast.
“I didn’t expect him to win,” Stanton said. “He’s won a couple of smaller races this year. I thought he had a shot at second. We’ve just been putting in a lot of good work.”
The Maranacook girls finished second to Waterville with 75 points to Waterville’s 52.Laura Parent placed fourth for the Black Bears while fellow sophomore Maddie Taylor took sixth.
“We’re pretty happy because our girls placed second and we were ranked fifth or sixth,” Maranacook coach Rosalea Kimball said. “All the girls had pretty strong races today.”
The Maranacook boys also exceeded expectations, finishing fourth behind Ruslan Reiter (4th) and Luca DeAngelis (7th)
Mt. Blue girls coach Kelly Cullenberg said the Cougars’ victory was a bit of a surprise.
“I would like to say it was expected and unexpected if that makes sense,” she said. “Certainly we have beaten these teams and they’ve turned around and we knew they were going to be there. Cony at Festival looked so incredibly tough and looked great out there today and Brunswick’s always a nemesis.”
Junior Maggie Hickey paced the Cougars with a fifth-place finish while sophomore Meghan Charles and freshman Maeve Hickey finished 11th and 12th, respectively. Cony’s Talia Jorgensen (6th), Messalonskee’s Avery Brennan (7th) and Lawrence’s Jaden Gray (9th) also cracked the top 10.
Guadalupi finished five seconds ahead of Mt. Ararat’s Katherine Leckbee to win the Class A title and establish a personal best on the course.
“I thought Anne got out pretty comfortably and really attacked the second half,” Totman said. “She was kind of running with a pack of girls at the beginning and it was pretty clear she pushed herself the second half of the race.”
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