AUGUSTA — The Maranacook boys felt good about their chances of winning the Class B title at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships but didn’t want to overlook anything and watch someone win the meet.

The Black Bears had no need to worry.

Led by a fourth-place finish by sophomore Austin Landry, the Black Bears easily won the KVAC B title Saturday morning at Cony High School. Maranacook finished with 57 points, 32 points in front of runner-up Winslow.

“We thought we were going to win, but we didn’t want to get our hopes up too much because a team could bust and come out and win it,” Landry said. “We went out strong and did pretty well.”

Ben Trapani of Camden Hills outkicked Gardiner’s Christian Heath to win the individual Class B title by five tenths of a second with a time of 17 minutes, 9.08 seconds.

“I had the lead until that last bit and I was just trying to hold on,” Heath said, “but he caught me at the end. My legs were giving out at the end. I gave it all I had.”

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Bethanie Brown, a senior at Waterville, easily won her second straight KVAC B title, beating Camden Hill’s Brittany Bowman by a little over a minute with a time of 18:59.4.

Brown helped the Waterville girls to a second-place finish. The Panthers finished with 55 points, behind KVAC B champ Camden Hills (31). Maranacook was third with 73 points, followed by Winslow (106) and Morse (129).

Mt. Blue senior Justin Tracy beat Mohamed Barre of Lewiston in the Class A race by three tenths of a second, finishing in 17:14.1. Lewiston won the KVAC A boys title with 47 points. Mt. Blue was second with 82, followed by Bangor (88), Mt. Ararat (110) and Hampden Academy (120).

In the Class A girls race, Lawrence’s Erzsebet Nagy won her second straight title, beating Brunswick’s Tessa Cassidy with a time of 19:27.0. Mt. Ararat won the KVAC A girls title with 57 points. Brunswick was second with 61, followed by Hampden (68), Mt. Blue (109) and Bangor (141).

For Maranacook, Landry ran with teammate Jason Stevenson early in the race, before breaking away. Stevenson finished eighth with a time of 18:34.4.

“We been running together all season,” Landry said. “Around the second mile, I decided to go out and I felt good.”

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Also for the Black Bears, Kilton Webb finished 11th, Luca DeAngelis 19th and Ethan Harriman 20th.

Heath led Trapani until late in the race when the favorite outkicked him. Waterville’s Chris Cote finished third at 17:36, followed by Landry (17:36.9) and Winslow’s Nick Shuckrow (17:58.9).

“I knew it was going to be really close,” Heath said. “I really wanted to beat Ben Trapani because he is Class B, I didn’t really care about the Class A runners, but I beat all the Class A runners and then Ben Trapani beat me.”

Tracy and Barre raced to the finish four second behind Heath, with Tracy just edging Barre at the finish line.

Nagy, who battled hip problems earlier this season, ran with Bowman for part of the race (Class A and B runners race at the same time). She made a move on one of the course’s tough hills.

Brown, meanwhile, jumped out early and cruised to victory.

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“This is a pretty tough course after running at Belfast, which was the last race I ran,” Brown said. “I just tried to get out to the lead early and stay in the lead.”

Caroline Colan finished third to help the Maranacook girls to their third-place finish with a time of 20:34.6. Also for the Black Bears, Hannah Despres was 10th, Lexi Paradis 11th and Jaycee Greely 23rd.

Scott Martin — 621-5618

smartin@centralmaine.com


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