Lincoln Academy junior Nikki Leeman placed 10th at the Western Maine Class B cross country championships to qualify for the State Class B meet to be held at Belfast on Sat., Nov. 1 at 2:45 p.m. Leeman finished the 5K course at Twin Brook Recreation in Cumberland in 20:40, and broke 21 minutes for the first time all season.
Gary Ward was seeded sixth going into the Regional finals, but donated blood two days before the championship race, which severely impacted his race. He started out as usual in a conservative 16th spot.
Coach Dino Joannides said Ward usually picked off runners as the race progressed, but instead, fell further and further behind, dropping back to 30th place in 18:08. Giving blood “cost him 40-45 seconds. I just feel terrible for Gary. He has worked hard all season so he could get to states. It is too bad to see a kid work so hard and have something like that happen to him. For an endurance athlete, it takes three to four weeks for the body to recover from losing 10 percent of its blood volume. It was his worst time of the year,” Joannides added.
Freshman Jalen Lincoln placed 46th in 18:49; Luca Keushguerian 64th in 20:14; Steven Severance 74th in 21:29; and Thomas Reiss 83rd in 23:05.
Lincoln boys placed 10th out of 12 teams. Greely boys won with 33 points, beating out Cape Elizabeth with 69.
Matt Rand of Cape Elizabeth won in 16:20, beating out Alex Moser, of York, by seven seconds. In the girls’ race, Lincoln did not have a team score. Sara Balch placed 66th in 25:34 and Katie Williams 71st in 26:12. Cape Elizabeth also won the girls’ race with 26 points, beating out Greely 94. Maranacook’s Abby Mace won the girls’ race in 18:53, beating Emily Attwood of Cape Elizabeth by over a minute.
