Windham's own Gwen Baker finishes in top 16 at UMF XC

BANGOR - The blue sky Saturday sparkled and temperatures stayed cool. Burnished gold, bronze and rust painted the back-drop. And the Grim Reaper tore through the streets of Bangor, scepter raised as a banana scurried just out of reach. It must have been Halloween in Bangor which meant, this year, the North Atlantic Conference Cross Country Championship Meet would be held at the beautiful Saxl Park on Mount Hope Avenue.

The University of Maine at Farmington’s women’s cross country team took second place in the NAC Championship Saturday. The finish capped their successful regular season in which they were picked in pre-season polls not to finish above third.

Colby-Sawyer took the title by a score of 30 to 59. Castleton came in third with 90 points. The young Farmington team led by sophomore Laura Pulito, sixth place finisher and junior Emma Pidden (10^th), had five finishers in the top 16. The other finishers for UMF were Alisha Labbe, (12^th) and Hannah Emery (15^th), with Windham’s own Gwen Baker, Farmington’s top freshman, finishing sixteenth.

Farmington coach Scott Hutchinson, a Gorham resident, said the UMF girls “made Colby-Sawyer work for it.” 

Baker said the times were slow because of the mud and showed the backs of her legs to prove it.

UMF will prepare over the next two weeks for the New England Regionals to be held at Connecticut College, in New London, Connecticut, on November 14th.