Preview: 

Festival of Champions

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Meet Schedule

Boys Unseeded A Section – 10:30 AM

Girls Unseeded Section – 11:10 AM

Boys Unseeded B Section – 11:50 AM

Girls Freshman Section – 12:30 PM

Boys Freshman Section – 1:10 PM

Girls Seeded Section – 1:50 PM

Boys Seeded Section – 2:30 PM

Girls Preview

All 21 of our ranked teams as well as all 21 individuals are competing at FOC.  After the rainout of the Southern Maine Classic two weeks ago, it will be exciting to finally sort out who are the best teams and individuals in the state.


Top 7  Individual Predictions

White broke the Manchester course record last week, and will be aiming to break her own record on this course.  Is the 17:00 barrier as possibility?


Teanne has been on fire ever since she broke the 5:00 barrier last spring.  It's hard to imagine anyone being able to stay with Ruth White for so long, but Teanne might be able to so for longer than anybody else in the field.


Moore is undefeated this year and beat 2022 Class A champ Addy Thibodeau by over a minute last week.


Cary is also undefeated so far this year and is the defending Class B champ.


Strauss is hoping to lead her school to the team title, and will hope to be scoring as low as possible.


Stark-Chessa is coming off of a win at Freeport last week in a sub 19 effort.


Addy paced a teammate to a 19:10 5K earlier this year, so expect her to be well under 19 minutes in an all-out effort on this course.


Top 7  Team Predictions

While we would love for the team win to go to a Maine school, Glastonbury looks to be the class of the field in this one.  


The Scots will look to bounce back after losing to Portland last week.  They were shorthanded at that meet so we expect the to be the top team in Maine when at full strength.


York has dominated all of their meets so far this year, and might have a shot at the win here if everything goes just right.  T


Portland is riding high after their win over Bonny Eagle last week.  They are still waiting on Maia Endicott to race this season.  Once she is healthy, the Bulldogs will be very dangerous.


Orono's top 3 would put them in the conversation for the team win, but there is a bit of a gap to 4 and 5.  Scoring 1 point for your first runner always helps!


Cumberland has one this meet in the past, but based on their times this year, a top 5 finish would be a strong one for them.


Bedford has 2 runners in the mid 19s, which will help them greatly in the team scoring.

Boys Preview

19 of the 21 teams that we have ranked are competing, as well 20 of  21 of the top individuals, so there will be plenty of firepower up front.  There are also a number of out of state individuals that enter with some eye-popping times.  


Top 7  Individual Predictions

Maddox ran a PR last week at South Portland, but has yet to face stiff competition so far this season, since he sat out of the SMAA Relays in August.  


Blades hasn't raced in 4 weeks due to two rain-outs and then he missed his team's meet last week due to a college visit.  He looked very strong on his home course last time he raced.


The senior out of Connecticut ran 15:41 last week at the Ocean State XC Invite.


Giardina is just a junior and has the fastest seed time in the field at 15:09, which was run on a very fast course.


Laverdiere has done a lot of racing this fall and recently put together a sub 16 performance on his home course.


Colson is undefeated so far this year, and beat 2022 Class C champ William Hileman recently.


Lemieux has had a very solid season so far, but has yet to break the 16 minute barrier in his career.  Today is the day he will likely do so.  


Top 7  Team Predictions

The Broncos are the favorite until proven otherwise.  Harrison Shain will compete for a top 10 spot and then the Broncos could have many more athletes in the top 50. Asher Valentine in particular seems to have taken a big step forward this year. 


The Bulldogs beat a very strong Bonny Eagle squad without Blades or Hargesheimer last week.  They will be shooting for a win here, but we see the Broncos pack coming in just ahead of theirs.


This out of state squad posted a top 5 average of 16:35 last week.  They will hope to spoil all of the Maine schools' days and take the W home to Connecticut .


Bishop Guertin is the team that comes in with the eye-popping seed times, but Bedford actually beat them last week.  Pencil them in for a top 5 finish.


The Falcons quietly have one of the best teams in the state so far this year.  Their 1-2 punch of Spaulding and Glibert is among the best in the state.


If Bishop Guertin can match their seed times with finish times, they will finish even higher than this and possibly win the meet.  Whether they can do so remains to be seen.


Just accounting for PRs, Brunswick is the top team in the state so far this year.  In order to place highly at this meet, they will need to exceed even those times.