BELFAST, Maine — Saturday’s 17th Maine Cross Country Festival of Champions brought together more than 1,400 runners from 74 teams from Maine, New England and Canada.
The boys seeded race instead turned into a likely preview of the Class A North regional championship and the state title meets, both of which will be held on the same Troy Howard Middle School course on consecutive Saturdays next month.
Will Shaughnessy logged a third-place overall finish in 16 minutes, 4.76 seconds to set the pace for his Brunswick High School team, which edged runner-up Bangor 121 to 136 to claim the team title.
The Dragons secured five spots among the race’s top 36 finishers. Tyler Patterson placed 16th, followed by Cameron Ashby (31st), Andrew Chingos (35th) and Joseph Valliere (36th).
Bangor featured the winner of the race, senior standout Gabe Coffey, who crossed the finish line in 15:54.51. That was more than seven seconds better than second-place runner John Auer of Falmouth (16:02.31).
The Rams tucked four of their top five runners into the top 25 with Daniel McCarthy claiming 17th place and Dwight Knightly close behind in 19th. Bangor also received a 24th-place performance by Gordon Doore, while Gavin Sychterz came in 76th.
Scarborough took third in the boys team competition with 174 points, Classical High School of Providence, R.I., was fourth (178) and Falmouth (207) placed fifth. Hampden Academy (229) placed sixth while Massabesic of Waterboro (235), Bonny Eagle of Standish (289), Cape Elizabeth (305) and Lincoln Academy of Newcastle (339) rounding out the top 10.
Tristram Coffin of Scarborough finished fourth in 16:06.22 and Joe O’Rourke of Classical (16:17.60) came in fifth. The Nos. 6 through 10 spots went to Classical’s Conor Murphy (16:25.08), Jarrett Gulden of Lincoln Academy (16:29.57), Hampden Academy’s Wyatt Lord (16:32.08), Aiden Wiley of Bonny Eagle (16:32.35) and Andrew McClure of Burrillville, R.I. (16:32.92).
Bonny Eagle took home team honors in the girls team competition, scoring 96 points to overcome a pair of Canadian entries.
Colonel Gray High of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, tallied 130 points and Dr. John Hugh Gillis High of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, finished third with 136. Falmouth (161) and Harwood Union of Duxbury, Vt., (297) were fourth and fifth, respectively.
Also earning positions in the top 10 were Camden Hills of Rockport (303), Cumberland, R.I. (316), Orono (322), York (386) and Cape Elizabeth (387).
Sofie Matson of Falmouth, who stormed onto the scene last year to win the Festival of Champions individual crown, made it two in a row. The sophomore covered the course in 18:21.52, more than eight seconds faster than runner-up Jillian Richardson of Edward Little (18:29.87).
Matson’s time was 4.15 seconds slower than her winning effort from last year.
Ami Beaumier of Bonny Eagle (18:45.94) finished third, Siona Chisholm of Dr. John Hugh Gillis captured fourth (18:46.79) and Olivia Reynolds of Maine Coast Waldorf in Freeport was fifth in 18:47.60. The top 10 individuals also included Mairin Canning of Dr. John Hugh Gillis (18:48.19), Lila Gaudrault of Cape Elizabeth (18:51.36), Ava Thurston of Harwood Union (18:59.13), Kate Tugman of Gorham (19:02.99) and Bonny Eagle’s Delaney Hesler (19:15.15).
In the boys race, Coffee improved on his 12th-place finish from 2017 and knocked 14.42 seconds of that effort. Brunswick had finished 20th in last year’s team competition.
In all, 848 runners finished one of the four boys races, including two unseeded divisions and a freshman race. On the girls side, there were 611 finishers among three divisions.