After failing to rank in boys’ events, a male runner has soared to “victory” after entering a high school girls cross country championship in Maine.
15-year-old Soren Stark-Chessa, a male who claims to be a transgender “female,” destroyed the competition during the event Saturday.
He beat the runner-up, a girl, by nearly a minute and a half.
Last year, Stark-Chessa competed in the boys’ division of the C South race with little success.
He finished 14th with a time of 19 minutes, 36 seconds.
Overall, he reportedly ranked 172nd in the state in the boys’ 5k division last year.
However, when he switched to competing against girls this year, he quickly rose to 4th place in the girls’ division.
On Saturday, Stark-Chessa won the Class C South girls’ title at Twin Brook Recreation Area just north of Portland, Maine.
Stark-Chessa is a sophomore at Maine Coast Waldorf School in nearby Freeport.
He finished the 3.1-mile course in 19 minutes and 17 seconds.
His time was 19 seconds faster than when he competed in the boys’ division.
However, it was a minute and 22 seconds faster than the second-place finisher, who was female.
High school sophomore Grace Alexander finished second with a time of 20 minutes and 40 seconds.
Alexander’s time was impressive for the female event.
The teen boy had a solid lead of about 20 seconds after the first mile.
He then continued to increase his lead over the rest of the race.
“I think I came out a little strong but just kept pushing through it and I’m happy with it,” Stark-Chessa told the Portland Press Herald.
Last month, Stark-Chessa was accused from the sidelines of “cheating” as he ran a girls’ 5k cross-country competition, finishing fifth.
“Way to cheat, bro!” one person reportedly yelled several times as the teen sprinted to the finish line.
High school senior Haley Williams finished in third place behind Stark-Chessa on Saturday.
As a sophomore and junior, she had finished second.
Williams called it “unfair” to have Stark-Chessa competing against her in the girls’ races.
She revealed that she knew she would likely not do better than second place “because as you probably know there is a runner that identifies as female, and they were running the boys’ race last year, and they decided to run the girls’ race this year.”
“And it’s really, it’s very upsetting to me because I’ve worked my butt off all year,” Williams told the Portland Press Herald.
She added that she is “totally supportive with everyone being whoever they want to be, but I feel like when you put people born male in girls’ races, it’s just genetically unfair.”
In 2021, Maine legislators tried to ban trans-identifying male athletes from competing against girls in school sports.
However, two bills on the issue failed.
