When Mt. Blue hosted a KVAC meet last Friday against Messalonskee, Lawrence, Spruce Mountain and Nokomis, it was the first time the team stepped on the course for the season.

The course is on private property and the property owners allow loggers to log on the premises. The course was in rough shape for the first two weeks of the season, but the Cougars were poised to get it ready for their first meet.

“It’s private property and the owners of the property give the (vocational) center, which is attached to the high school, the opportunity to get in there and log it,” Mt. Blue coach Kelley Cullenberg said. “They have gone in and cut a fair amount, and there’s was a logging competition there last spring. The bottom line was it was ready, but it was ankle-twisting dangerous.”

The coaching staff, Cullenberg’s husband, parents, the team and a local construction company spent hours cleaning up the course to get it in shape.

Cullenberg has a lot of new kids on the team this year so before the meet started they walked the course to get the lay of the land.  

The girls’ team had a solid showing as it won the meet behind the underclassman of Maggie Hickey who came in first with a time of 22:34.5. Freshmen River Lisius and Meg Charles finished second and third, respectfully.

Hickey, who is a sophomore, cut her time by 1:18 from last year’s first meet, which was also held at Mt. Blue’s course.

“At this point she’s running much faster than she did last year,” Cullenberg said. “She did what she needed to do over the summer to prepare for the beginning of the season. That’s what we are seeing right now and it’s paying off for sure.”

Lisius and Charles put the effort in the preseason.

“Where we are at in the season, they have worked very hard to get where they are at and will continue to improve,” Kelley Cullenberg said. “Meg is a new runner and River ran in middle school. It’s been fun to see what they can do.”

River time 23:58 cracked the top-10 performances by a Mt. Blue runner on that course. Cullenberg also said Charles isn’t that far behind from the top ten.

On the boys’ side, the upperclassman led the charge as seniors Aaron Willingham and Dan Lesko finished 1-2 and the team as a whole came in second two points behind first-place Messalonskee.

Willingham has picked up where he left off from last season where he finished third at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Championships and 14th at the Eastern Maine Class A meet. He also had three first-place and two second-place finishes. To start this season, he finished second in the Scott Laliberte Invitational, a preseason race on Aug. 29.

The coaching staff has been stressing to Lesko that he can keep up with Willingham. Lesko was eight seconds off of Willingham’s winning time of 17:19.9.

“I hope it served as an eye opener for him, because he does all his workouts with Aaron. We have been drilling into him that he can definitely run with Aaron,” Cullenberg said.

Lewiston wins first Battle of the Bridge

Lewiston and Edward Little opened the season in a two-team meet Friday at EL. In the boys’ race, the Blue Devils took the top six spots, with Osman Doorow narrowly beating the Laliberte Invitational winner Isiah Harris by one second with a time of 12:36. Jake Bozinell was the Red Eddies top runner, finishing seventh with a time of 14:04.

In the girls’ race, Lewiston took the top four spots, with Lauren Lecompte winning the event by four seconds over Courtney Allen with a time of 16:43. Edward Little’s top three runners finished fifth, sixth and seventh. Selena Gauthier led EL with a time of 17:52 followed by Hannah Stauffer, who finished three second later while Mercedes Lane ran a flat 18 minutes

On the docket this week

There are two Mountain Valley Conference meets with local teams on Wednesday. Winthrop hosts Wiscasset, Monmouth, Lisbon, Boothbay and Hall-Dale, while Telstar welcomes Dirigo, Carrabec, Madison, St. Doms and Mountain Valley.

On the KVAC side, Mt. Blue and Oxford Hills goes up to Lawrence for a nine-team  meet on Thursday. Lewiston hosts Spruce Mountain, Leavitt along with Maranacook and Mt. Ararat on Friday. Edward Little will be the lone local team at Belfast’s meet also on Friday.

Gray-New Gloucester travels to Yarmouth in Western Maine Conference meet on Friday.