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BANGOR — Despite chilly conditions and high water levels, canoers and kayakers raced to fast times through the Kenduskeag Stream at the 49th Annual Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race in Bangor on Saturday.

The race, which has become an iconic event for Bangor, started at 8:30 a.m. in Kenduskeag Village with hundreds of locals coming out to support the paddlers. Kayaks and canoes went off in increments of five minutes based on their bib number as more than 300 craft completed the 16.5-mile course, which ended at the mouth of the stream where it empties into the Penobscot River in downtown Bangor.

“It was good, there was no headwind,” Dave Cassidy said of the conditions. Cassidy, along with his teammate, Matt Warner, won the two-person canoe division. “The water was better than years past,” Warner added.

Cassidy and Warner are no strangers to the Kenduskeag race as they won the same event last year. They completed the course in 2 hours, 47 minutes, 49 seconds.

“It was a little goal, we wore short sleeves,” Cassidy said. “It was cold at the beginning but we warmed up towards the end.”

Trevor MacLean of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia won the overall title for the seventh consecutive year, and recorded his 10th victory in the Kenduskeag canoe race by completing the course in 2:08:29. He recorded the fastest time of the day by more than 10 minutes in his long kayak.

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Chris Francis and Mark Ranco recorded the second fastest time of the day, completing the course in 2:18:46 and winning the two-person medium canoe experienced group.

The race was originally slated for April 18 but had to be pushed back due to conditions in the stream, including remaining ice. It was the first time in event history that the race had to be postponed.

Canoers and kayakers navigated their way through 10 miles of flatwater on Kenduskeag Stream until they eventually reached the 6.5-mile mark, Six Mile Falls. There, paddlers were forced to negotiate brutal water conditions.

Some competitors opted to avoid the possible outcome of falling into the icy water by taking out their boats, portaging around the rapids and drops, and then continuing on.

However, most paddlers chose to attack the stream head-on, which led to a few tumbles along the way for some unfortunate competitors.

Winning the open canoe race were Dale Hartt, Chip Loring, Bob Mitchell, Rick O’Donald, Ralph Robertson, River Robertson and Terry Westcott who all wore bib No. 6, as they completed the course in 2:19:48.

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Second and third place in the open canoe race were separated by only four seconds, one of the closest finishes the race has seen. Other winners included Jeff Owen and Katie Owen of Orono in the Senior-Junior canoe division as they paddled their way to a time of 2:25:15, while Charlie Smith of Bangor set the pace among solo canoeists in 2:39:11 to claim the C-1 Recreation division.

Top honors in the Century class went to Clayton Cole of Corinth and Bill Deighan of Newburgh (2:24:43), with Catherine Johnston and Lynn Kaluzienski of Orono taking the C-2 Women’s division in 3:07:48.

See more photos at bangordailynews.com.

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