Foxcroft runs at Eastern Maine X-C championships

    BELFAST — The Foxcroft Academy cross country team concluded the season at the Class B East championship on Oct. 26 at Troy Howard Middle School. The Pony boys finished with a score of 410 points to place 15th, a mere point behind Washington Academy of East Machias.

    The first Foxcroft boy to cross the finish line was junior Noah Simpson. Simpson covered the five kilometers in 19 minutes, 32.77 seconds to place 65th out of 106 Class B runners.
    Seconds later sophomore Gabe Piquette finished, placing 70th at 19:47.76. The rest of the Ponies included sophomore Tsai Yun-Ting, 88th at 21:16.38; junior Zhe Chen, 98th at 22:36.92 and freshman Ethan Poland, 105th at 24:43.75.
    The boys’ winner was Ellsworth High School senior Dan Curts in 16:00.95. Curts helped the Eagles win the team title with 23 points, easily besting the 109 for second place John Bapst Memorial High School of Bangor.
    Four Foxcroft girls ran in the Class B East championship, one shy of the total needed to qualify for the team standings. Senior Clara Stephens was the first of the quartet to finish, as she placed 47th in a field of 103 with a time of 23:01.33.
    Senior Liza Grigoryeva came in 53rd at 23:23.55, while sophomore Nora Fleck was 66th at 24:20.31 and junior Anna Sedlackhova placed 82nd at 26:04.71.
    Ellsworth senior Aleta Looker won the girls race in 18:54.85. With 21 points, the Mount Desert Island High School girls won the team title. Placing second was John Bapst with 103 points.
    The Saturday before Foxcroft ran in the Penobscot Valley Conference (PVC) Large School Championship on the same course. The Pony boys placed eighth out of nine schools with a score of 231 points, ahead of Washington’s 243.
    Piquette led his team by placing 31st out of 59 large school runners with a time of 19:34.81. Next was Simpson, 38th at 20:01.76 and then Yun-Ting, 51st at 21:44.11; freshman Taylor Smith, 54th at 22:34.76; Chen, 57th at 24:16.02; and Poland, 59th at 25:15.33.
    Ellsworth senior Brandon Beardsley won the boys’ title in 16:51.12, helping his team win with 41 points or 12 fewer than John Bapst’s 53.
    The Foxcroft girls finished seventh of eight teams at the PVC championship with a score of 180 points, besting Washington by 20.
    The top Pony runner was Grigoryeva who placed 23rd in a field of 58 with a time of 23:01.94. The rest of the team was Stephens, 33rd at 24:39.78; Fleck, 35th at 24:59.50; sophomore Jen Clawson, 48th at 27:22.82; and Sedlackhova, 52nd at 27:58.66.
    Looker won the PVC crown in 19:28.85. MDI followed preceded its regional crown with a conference title, scoring 23 points to finish ahead of the 70 for John Bapst.