The Orono High School girls cross country team not only was the best in class Saturday but also the best regardless of class.
With juniors Tia Tardy, Hannah Steelman and Kassidy Dill replicating their 1-2-3 finishes of the Penobscot Valley Conference and North regional meets, the Red Riots surged to their third consecutive Class C state championship.
Coach Lin White’s club placed all five of its scoring runners among the top 11 finishers to total 24 points compared to 51 for second-place George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill.
And when times for the girls races in Classes A, B and C were combined for the purpose of determining qualifiers for the New England championships, Orono had the low score of 123, besting Class A champion Bonny Eagle of Standish (143) and Class B winner Yarmouth, third overall with 154.
Tardy traversed the hilly 3.1-mile course at the Twin Brook Recreation Area in Cumberland in 19 minutes, 43.81 seconds, while Steelman was second at 19:59.24 and Dill third in 20:17.34.
Olivia Fandel, the lone senior among Orono’s seven varsity runners, finished ninth overall while freshman Camille Kohtala placed 11th for the Red Riots.
GSA, second to Orono at both the PVCs and North regional, placed three sophomores among the top 10 in Eliza Brougton (fourth), Zeya Lorio (sixth) and Mary Richardson (10th).
Boothbay’s Faith Blethen was the first non-Orono finisher in fourth place.
In Class A, senior Kialeigh Marston’s third-place finish led Bonny Eagle to its third state crown in the last four years. Teammates Ami Beaumier (sixth) and Elisabeth Redwood (seventh) also scored top-10 finishes as the Scots defeated defending state champion Scarborough 58-86.
Anna Slager, a sophomore from Gorham, was the top individual finisher with a time of 19:42.90, 9.34 seconds faster than runner-up Katherine Leckbee, a sophomore from Mount Ararat of Topsham.
In Class B, Yarmouth overcame the 1-2 individual finishes of Greely of Cumberland Center’s Katherine Leggat-Barr and Caroline Todd to edge the defending champion Rangers 65-78 and win its first state title.
Leggat-Barr, a junior, posted the fastest girls time of the day regardless of class with her 19:11.71, while Todd, a freshman, was next at 19:18.51.
Sophomore Anneka Murrin placed fourth and junior Abigail Hamilton was sixth as Yarmouth placed its top five finishers among the top 25 scoring runners.
York was a close third with 81 points.
North regional individual champion Lauren Brown of Waterville finished fourth overall, while regional runner-up Amanda Boyd was seventh.
Waterville was the top North team in the ‘B’ meet, placing seventh overall with 181 points.
The three state championship teams all qualify for the New England championships to be held at Thetford, Vermont, on Nov. 14, as will Scarborough, Greely and York, the next three lowest-scoring teams regardless of class when A, B and C were scored as a single meet.
Also advancing to the New Englands are the three individual race champions and the next fastest 22 runners regardless of class.
