BELFAST — Waterville junior Nick Dall is rounding into form at just the right time.
Saturday, Dall won his third Class B title at the Northern Regional Cross Country Championships held at Troy Howard Middle School. Winslow freshman Olivia Tiner repeated her performance of a week ago at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference meet by once again topping the Class B field, this time by more than a minute.
This season has been an uphill grind for Dall, who missed the outdoor track season with a knee injury.
“Today was really good for me because I haven’t run many good times this year,” Dall said. “This is a step in the right direction. The last two or three weeks I’ve been feeling a lot more like myself, getting some good workouts in. I’m really excited for the rest of the season.”
Dall completed the 3.1 mile course in 16:44.5 in front of Caribou’s Dylan Marrero.
“Nick Reznick from MDI really pushed the pace on the super highway a little after the mile,” Dall said. “And then at the top of the hill I just passed him and I just tried to open up the biggest lead I could.”
Tiner led from wire to wire recalling an incident in the freshman qualifier at the Festival of Champions.
“I came out fast because at F of C’s there was about a pack of 10 girls, we all got trampled,” Tiner said. “I was like I don’t want to have a repeat because that added a lot of time.”
Tiner finished in 19:38.47, a minute and a second ahead of Caribou’s Abigail Wimmer.
“I do wish I had someone in particular there to push me,” Tiner said. “I really miss running against (injured freshman) Courtney Paine from Erskine and I just can’t wait to run against her again.”
On the team front, the Cony boys and girls both qualified for next week’s Class A state meet for the first time in 16 years. Also qualifying in Class A were the Mt. Blue and Lewiston boys. Among Class B boys, Waterville and Erskine qualified for the state meet while the Winslow girls also qualified.
Half the teams and the top 30 individuals in the regional field in Class A, B and C qualified for next week’s state at Twin Brooks Recreation Area in Cumberland.
The Cony boys and girls each squeaked into the final qualifying spot. Caleb Richardson finished eighth to lead the boys while Tessa Jorgensen paced the girls in 15th place.
“Our three, four and five girls really came up big,” Cony coach Shawn Totman said. “That’s how we got in. The boys, they ran really well as a team. It’s like a team effort. You can’t give the credit to any one person.”
Sam Stinson led Mt. Blue to a fifth-place finish by placing 19th followed by teammates Jesse Dalton (21st) and Zeke Robinson (22nd).
“We have been battling through injury but these past two weeks my top four guys have been doing all their speed together and have really gotten into it,” Mt. Blue coach Kelley Cullenberg said. “They haven’t all run their best races together yet this season.”
Kahryn Cullenberg placed fifth for the Mt. Blue girls, who failed to qualify for the state meet for the first time in recent memory.
“I can’t remember,” said Cullenberg now in her 25th year as coach. “The thing about this team is they have gotten closer. They walked the course today hand in hand.”
Hampden won the boys Class A title while Hermon won in Class B and Orono in Class C. On the girls side, Camden Hills won handily in Class A, Caribou in Class B and George Stevens Academy in Class C.
The Class A boys race featured the same field as last week’s KVAC meet and played out nearly the same with the top four placing in the same order. Mt. Ararat’s Lisandro Berry Gaviria won with a personal best time of 15:53.37 followed by Bangor’s Gabe Coffey, Hampden’s Wyatt Lord and Dominic Sokoloski of Oxford Hills.
“I took the lead right before two miles,” Berry Gaviria said. “Wyatt Lord of Hampden took the pace out really fast so I kind of sat back for the first mile. It’s unreal. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet. It’s pretty amazing.”
In the girls race, Camden Hills junior Augusta Stockford and sophomore Grace Iltis reversed positions from a week ago with Stockford beating Iltis for the first time ever.
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