2011 Maine Marathon

2011 Marathon Results | 2011 Half Marathon Results | 2011 Relay Results

Graves, Crawford fend off close challenges

Evan Graves, 30, of Caribou and Stephanie Crawford, 34, of Dover, N.H., splashed their way to narrow victories in the 20th Maine Marathon.

After running together with Lucas Churchill, 31, of Bolton, Mass., for much of the race, Graves finally pulled away and won by 33 seconds, finishing in 2 hours, 36 minutes, 53 seconds. Robert Ashby, 43, of Brunswick was third in 2:41:46.

Crawford, meanwhile, was on her way to becoming just the fourth woman to win the Maine Marathon twice, but she had to hold off a hard charge from Laura Hutchinson, 29, of Holyoke, Mass. Hutchinson erased a 2-minute deficit before Crawford surged away again, finishing in 3:07:06. Hutchinson was 32 seconds behind, and Mary Garrity, 28, of Manchester, N.H., finished third in 3:12:58 .

Andrew Combs, a former Bowdoin College runner who now lives in New York, paced a field of about 1,900 finishers in the half marathon. Combs, 27, posted a time of 1:09:20, more than a minute faster than runner-up Chris Harmon, 23, of Scarborough (1:10:40), who was followed closely by Robert Gomez, 28, of Saco (1:10:53).

Women's course record-holder Kristin Barry, 37, of Scarborough, won the women's half for the second time in three years with a time of 1:19:27. Gretchen Speed, 30, of Brookline, Mass., placed second (1:23:45), and Andrea Giddings, 26, of Nobleboro took third (1:25:27). Joan Benoit Samuelson, 54, of Freeport made a guest appearance and finished fourth (1:25:31).

The Small Point Striders - Josh Rice of Cincinnati, Cyrus Martin of Boston, John Herrigel of Portland and Morgan Cuthbert of Freeport - won the marathon relay with a time of 2:57:39. The Quick Chicks -- Amy Lilley and Lisa Chaisson of Scarborough, Jess Ward of Lyman and Denise Curry of Windham -- placed first among the women in 3:08:00, and the Hyde School quartet of Cody Mitchell, Zach Bettencourt, Laura MacDonald and Bridget West took top honors in the mixed division (3:03:26), running as The Husky/Phoenix Rebellion.