Winning one New England Prep School Track Association Division 4 cross country title is special. For the Kents Hill girls, winning the title two years in a row is historical.

“This is a really special group,” coach Mike Toomey said. “This group would have to be in the conversation for maybe the greatest team to ever come out of Kents Hill.”

That’s quite a statement considering Kents Hill is the 30th-oldest boarding school in the nation (founded in 1824). But Toomey’s team did become the first in school history to win back-to-back titles in any sport and now can claim half of the school’s four New England championships.

The Huskies placed four in the top 20 and totaled 59 points, well ahead of runner-up Pingree with 84, on Nov. 14 in South Kent, Connecticut.

As always, senior Anne McKee of Hallowell led the Huskies. She earned her third consecutive New England individual title, setting a new course record in the process for the third straight year with a time of 22:28.

It was the closest finish ever for McKee, who never lost a MAISAD race in her four years at Kents Hill. Page Cassidy of Bancroft School was neck-and-neck with her at the tape.

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“Anne got the lean,” Toomey said. “She’s tough. Looking back and seeing how exhausted she was after the race, you could just see there was no way she was going to lose it. It was amazing.”

Perhaps even more amazing is Kents Hill’s depth. Even without their top runner, the Huskies still would have won New Englands as well as the MAISAD title. Two newcomers — Lizz Vigue of Belgrade and Morgan Zenter of Castine — finished ninth and 14th, respectively. Neither had ever run cross country before this season.

“If you had told me over the summer that we’d have two girls who weren’t even on the team then who would be our No. 2 and No. 3 runners … I’d be a little nervous,” Toomey said.

Fayette’s Izzy Charland (20th), Leila Alfaro (22nd), of Charleston, South Carolina, and McKee’s younger sister, Kate (23rd), also finished near the front of the 141-runner field of what Toomey described as a difficult, uphill course.

Toomey credited captains Anne McKee and Aimee Sala of Stratton with setting the tone for the team from the start of the season.

“We’ve got a strong pack,” Toomey said. “I wasn’t sure who was going to be No. 5 or No. 2 or No. 3, but I knew someone would. It speaks volumes for the girls just showing their consistency and that by being a complete team, great things can happen.”

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With the start of the winter sports season just eight days away, basketball and hockey teams are diving into their preseason schedule this weekend with tournaments scheduled for Friday and Saturday.

Basketball fans can catch a preview of some of the top teams in the state at the Gardiner Girls Tip-Off Tournament on Friday and Saturday. Carrabec, Erskine, Lawrence, Maranacook, Messalonskee, Monmouth, Mount View, Mt. Blue and 14 other teams from around Maine will join host Gardiner in the two-day tournament, which will take place simultaneously at Gardiner High School and Gardiner Middle School.

The action starts at 1 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. on Saturday at both venues. The last games of each day are scheduled to tip off at 6:20 p.m. Adult admission is $5 on Friday, $6 on Saturday. Students and seniors are $3.

The G&E Roofing Chrisanne Burns Memorial Tournament returns to Cony High School on Saturday. Burns was a basketball and softball standout at Cony who died in a car crash in 1993.

The tournament was established the following year (and later merged with the G&E Roofing tournament) to start a scholarship in Burns’ name. The tournament also serves as a forum to raise awareness to athletes of the dangers of drinking and driving, speeding and other reckless decisions. Since then, over $40,000 has been given out in scholarships, including $4,000 this year that will be awarded to two recipients at the tournament.

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The Cony girls and boys and Hall-Dale girls highlight this year’s participants. Teams from Hermon, Spruce Mountain and Medomak Valley will also attend. The first game tips off at 9:30 a.m. and the last at 5:30 p.m., with a 2 p.m. presentation from the Burns family and tournament alumni.

On Saturday, Camden National Bank Ice Vault in Hallowell will host the Thanksgiving Turkey Shoot featuring several local teams in a round robin format.

Cony, Gardiner, Lawrence/Skowhegan, Maranacook/Winthrop, Messalonskee, Winslow and Yarmouth will face off in four rounds of games starting at 8 a.m., with Gardiner vs. Maranacook/Winthrop. The schedule culminates in a championship game following the 5:40 p.m. game between Messalonskee and Cony.

Games will be 30-minute running time, except the championship game, which will be two 15-minute stop-time periods. Teams wishing to compete for a spot in the championship game will be awarded points per game. Point games will be randomly assigned after teams have declared to opt in for the championship. Two points will be awarded per win, one point per tie. In the event of a tie, the first tie-breaker will be most wins, followed by head-to-head record, followed by least amount of penalty minutes.

Admission is $8 for adults and $6 for students.

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The Skowhegan and Madison girls basketball teams will meet in the preseason for a good cause — the Amanda Berry Scholarship Fund.

Proceeds from the Dec. 1 game at Skowhegan Area High School will be donated for the scholarship. Berry was a three-sport standout at Skowhegan when she was killed in an automobile accident before starting her senior year in the summer 2004.

Admission is a suggested donations of $5 for adults and $3 for students. Anyone who has already ordered a shirt commemorating the game will be admitted with no charge, with a few shirts — in Skowhegan orange and Madison blue — will be on sale at the door. The JV game starts at 6 p.m. and the varsity at 7:30 p.m. There will also be a 50/50 drawing, with proceeds to benefit the family of Scott Brown, a Skowhegan student and football player from Norridgewock who drowned in Embden Pond in September.

Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638

rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @RAWmaterial33


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