BELFAST, Maine — The leading light in Class A North boys cross country this fall seems to change from meet to meet, and Saturday’s regional championship race at the Troy A. Howard Middle School provided no exception.
The Brunswick Dragons, second to Bangor at last week’s Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference meet, rebounded by outlasting Hampden Academy in the sport’s version of overtime to capture the Class A North event.
Brunswick and Hampden — third at the KVACs — were tied at 53 points apiece through the teams’ top five scoring runners, meaning the respective sixth runners on each squad would determine the outcome.
And that’s where the Dragons had the slightest edge, with sophomore Aiden Simmons’ 20th-place overall finish — just 1 minute, 20 seconds behind his team’s top runner, third-place Will Shaughnessy — enough to put coach Dave Delois’ squad on top.
“Our (pack) split has always been tight, usually about 1:15,” said Delois. “We tell them that the sixth runner is important and today just proved it. It doesn’t always work that way but today it did.”
Mt. Ararat of Topsham, paced by race winner Lisandro Berry-Gaviria (15:49.76), slipped past Bangor into third place with 67 points, while Bangor (69), Cony of Augusta (167), Brewer (183) and Mt. Blue of Farmington (196) also earned trips to next Saturday’s state championships on this same 3.1-mile course.
Hermon won its second straight Class B North title, but unlike last fall this victory came as no surprise. The Hawks tallied just 34 points to best Caribou (61) and Ellsworth (63). Mount Desert Island of Bar Harbor (114), Presque Isle (182), Old Town (192) and John Bapst of Bangor (201) also earned state-meet berths.
Two-time defending Class C state champion Orono topped George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill 26-43 to retain its North championship. Also advancing to states were Calais (142), Lee Academy (150), Greater Houlton Christian Academy (153), Washburn (155) and Maine School of Science & Mathematics (193) of Limestone.
In Class A, Shaughnessy was the only Brunswick runner among the top nine finishers, but the quality depth provided by Tyler Patterson (10th), Joseph Valliere (11th), Andrew Chingos (13th) and Cameron Ashby (16th) — a quartet separated by only 12.3 seconds — was enough to keep pace with Hampden.
The Broncos were led by Wyatt Lord’s fourth-place finish, an eighth from Grahme Solokoski, and a 12th-place effort from sophomore Connor Glowa.
“What you saw today is typical,” said Hampden co-coach Brad Veitch. “We thought we were going to be going against Bangor and Brunswick and that’s what happened, and when you have to go to the sixth runner you can’t get much closer than that.”
Senior Gabe Coffey (second) and freshman Daniel McCarthy (fifth) led Bangor’s effort but on this day the Rams couldn’t match the depth of Brunswick and Hampden.
“There’s a lot of parity in this league,” said Bangor coach Roger Huber. “Brunswick, Hampden, Bangor, Mt. Ararat — it could be anyone on any given day.”
Hermon’s first six runners were separated by just 36.7 seconds while placing among the top 13 overall in Class B. Freshman Ian Meserve finished third overall, followed by Kyle Byram (fifth), Ben Zapsky and Braedon Stevens (who tied for seventh), Zachary Beaton (11th) and Dylan Fowler (13th).
“Last year we were surprised to win PVCs and even more surprised to win regionals,” said Stevens. “This year, we were like ‘OK, we really have some potential,’ so we worked really hard, we did our best to work together and that’s what’s carried us this far.”
Matyas Nachtiagall, a junior from Washington Academy in East Machias, won the “B” race in 17:00.70, nearly 13 seconds ahead of runner-up Dylan Marrero of Caribou. Marrero’s teammate, Kyle Boucher, placed fourth.
Another Down East runner, Jonesport-Beals senior Evan Merchant, won the Class C North individual championship. The three-time Downeast Athletic Conference champ led from start to finish and recorded a time of 17:30.70 to top runner-up Travis Hunt of Narraguagus of Harrington (17:39.50).
“This means everything,” said Merchant. “This is my last year and this was my last chance, so I gave it everything.”
Led by third-place Thorin Saucier, Orono had five of the next nine finishers to retain its stranglehold on the regional crown despite losing its top five runners from last year’s championship edition to graduation or transfer.
Other top finishers for the Red Riots were Tucker Ellis (seventh), Marius de Lannee (ninth), Colby Pawson (10th) and Eli Ewer (11th).
“It was a new beginning for us,” said Saucier. “We didn’t know how it was going to go.”
George Stevens placed Caden Mattson (fifth), Clark Morrison (sixth) and Ian Renwick (eighth), while Sumner of East Sullivan had the fourth-place finisher in sophomore Luke Barnes.
