AUGUSTA, Maine — The Hampden Academy boys and girls cross country teams emerged as the best in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A ranks Saturday, racing to league titles at Cony High School.
In Class B, the Maranacook of Readfield boys and Morse of Bath girls claimed conference crowns ahead of next weekend’s regional championship meets.
The Hampden boys topped runner-up Mt. Blue of Farmington 53-75, with Messalonskee of Oakland (91), Brewer (99) and Lewiston completing the top five. Bangor was 11th with 286 points.
Mt. Blue got 1-2 finishes from Aaron Willingham (in a course-record time of 16:56.50) and Dan Lesko, but Hampden’s depth proved too much.
Sophomore Paul Casavant and senior Caleb Lord paced the Broncos by placing third and fourth, respectively, and the team’s other five runners all finished within 33 seconds of each other to help secure the title.
Sophomore Will Webb was 13th followed by seniors Ryan Cole (15th), Justin St. Peter (18th), Spencer Canham (20th) and Tyler Moore (23rd).
Brewer was led to its fourth-place finish by senior Josh Donnelly in ninth place and junior Kyle St. Thomas in 11th.
The Hampden girls were sparked by a second-place finish from senior Elizabeth Lebun, whose time of 20:45.5 trailed only race winner Anne Guadalupi of Cony (20:30.6).
But depth again proved decisive as the Broncos totaled 61 points to edge second-place Brunswick by three points. Lewiston (110), Brewer (112) and Mt. Blue (128) completed the top five, while Bangor was ninth with 245 points.
Sophomore Simone Withers and senior Stephanie Walker were next for Hampden in eighth and ninth overall, with junior Bryanna Parker (16th) and seniors Erin Murphy (26th) and Tien Misler (27th) rounding out the Broncos’ contingent.
Brunswick placed three runners in the top six, with Tessa Cassidy in third, Tiffany Tanner in fifth and Ruth Van Kampen in sixth.
Brewer was paced by Lily Cohen in 12th place and Arianna Geiser in 20th.
In Class B, the Maranacook boys scored 87 points to edge a youthful Camden Hills of Rockport squad by four points. Belfast was third with 102 points followed by Erskine Academy of South China (106) and Morse (142).
Ethan Harrison’s fourth-place effort paced the victorious Black Bears, which also got consecutive top-20 finishes from John Parent (14th), Luca Deangelis (15th) and Colby Watts (16th).
Sophomore Caleb Love-Webb led Camden Hills by finishing third followed by freshmen Cooper Russell (13th), Kyle Wood (25th) and Trevor Iltis (26th) and junior Ben Winchenbach (28th).
Belfast was sparked by Roger Quehl’s fifth place followed by consecutive finishes from Patrick Groening (22nd), Jackson Winslow (23rd) and Ricky Smith (24th).
Harrison Knowlton of Leavitt of Turner Center was the Class B boys race winner in 17:34.20 followed by Waterville’s Chris Cote (18:17.30).
Maranacook’s Hannah Despres won the Class B girls race in 21:34.80, 10 seconds ahead of Waterville’s Lauren Brown.
Led by three top-10 finishers, Morse won the team title with 54 points, besting second-place Maranacook (61), Camden Hills (86), Waterville (102) and Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield (132).
Ruth Nadeau led Morse by placing third, with teammates Maris Sllvestri (fifth), Maeve McGowan (eighth), Kelsea Albertson (13th) and Amelia Franklin (27th) completing the Shipbuilders’ scoring runners.
Camden Hills was paced by seventh-place Emily Kessel, one of four top-20 finishers for the Windjammers along with Ella Scott (10th), Alli Wells (19th) and Ellie Spizuocco (20th).
Megan Noble’s ninth-place performance led MCI.
