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

CUMBERLAND – Aran Johnson has always been a hard worker. It was just a matter of how much work I spent on, well, work, and how much I could spend on 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 miles. course to win the Class A South regional championship in

“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 as the Bulldogs’ fifth scorer at the state meet. But because of his summer job hauling lobster pots, he had never fully committed to remote training until last summer.

The combination of strength and training made Johnson confident he could pull away with a final kick. Johnson did it, winning in 16 minutes, 22.98 seconds, followed by Woods (16:26.89) and Rivard (16:34.80). Johnson’s time was 79 seconds faster than the one he ran as a junior at the regional meet.

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 he feels “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.

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

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

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

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

Dirigo won the team title with 84 points, with Winthrop (138) and Maranacook (140) rounding out the top three teams. Nine different 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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