Lake Region’s Sam Laverdiere, Portland’s Aran Johnson and Waynflete’s Pi Crosby accelerate to regional wins

CUMBERLAND – Aran Johnson has always been a hard worker. It was just a matter of how much time I spent, well, working, versus how much I could spend training for cross country.

On Saturday at Twin Brook Recreation Area, the Portland High senior, lobster fisherman and Long Island resident showed what a summer of focused training can do when he sprinted away from Deering’s Ellis Woods and Henri Rivard of Marshwood in the final part of the 3.1 mile course. to win the Class A South championship in 16 minutes, 22.98 seconds.

Woods (16:26.89) and Rivard (16:34.80) soon followed.

“That’s what 40 miles a week can do for you,” Johnson said.

Johnson was a big part of Portland’s regional and state championship team last year.finishing 12th at the regional meet as Portland’s fourth runner and 25th at the state meet as the Bulldogs’ fifth scorer. But because of his summer job hauling lobster pots (he has his own boat), he had never fully committed to remote training. Knowing that Portland had graduated its three best running backs, Johnson made a change. He continued working at his job, but he also ran more.

The combination of strength and mileage made Johnson confident he could pull away with a final kick, he said. His winning time was 79 seconds faster than a year ago.

Woods said he wasn’t saving anything for next week, when the top runners and teams will return to Twin Brook for the state championship races.

“I was trying my best,” Woods said, adding that “it’s good to know what you can do on a course.”

The top runners and teams will return to Twin Brook on Saturday for the state championship. Nine teams from Class A, seven from B and eight from C qualified, along with individual riders in the top 30.

Portland won the Class A team title with 43 points, followed by Scarborough (70). Portland had a classic second group after Johnson, with Henry Morrison, Charlie Jacques, Cole Smith and Owen Blades finishing in places 9-12.

Lake Region senior Sam Laverdiere, defending Class B South and state champion, posted the fastest overall time of 16:06.51 to win the Class B race, well ahead of York’s Aidan Ring (16:06.51). 36.64).

“I give all the glory to God. I really couldn’t have done it without him,” said Laverdiere, who was hoping to run under 16 minutes and try for Maine’s all-time best time at Twin Brook of 15:43, run by Brunswick’s Will Geoghegan in 2009. The record of the men’s field is 15:32, set by Donn Cabral of Glastonbury (Conn.) at the 2007 New England meet.

Laverdiere did not get to train as much as he wanted in the summer. He broke his collarbone while playing capture the flag at a track camp in Acadia in July.

“The bad thing about being a distance runner is that you’re pretty skinny, so there’s not much cushion there,” Laverdiere said as he patted her right shoulder. “I had surgery in a week or two and it took me about seven weeks to get back to training.”

Three-time defending Class B champion Freeport continued to look strong by taking the regional title with 57 points, led by Alex Gilbert (16:41.29) in third and Conner Smith (16:51.50) in fourth.

Gilbert said several of Freeport’s runners have been battling illnesses, but Saturday’s results prepare the team well for the state meet.

“We are always thinking that we are going to win. “We always want to win and we always want to do our best,” Gilbert said.

In Class C, Peaks Island resident Pi Crosby of Waynflete easily won with a time of 17:21.99, more than half a minute ahead of Dirigo’s William Morris (17:52.26).

Crosby had a big lead from the start. Moments after finishing, he was heard saying, “it’s hard to run alone.”

Crosby later noted that leading all the way “requires a different kind of mental strength than simply running behind other people’s backs.”

Dirigo won the team title with 84 points, with Winthrop (138) and Maranacook (140) rounding out the top three teams. Nine teams claimed first place before Winthrop’s Sam St. Germain (10th) was joined by teammate Alfie Cognata (third). Dirigo’s Stetson Thurston was 11th and the Cougars’ Hayden Robbins was 15th.

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