AUGUSTA — Erzsebet Nagy and Bethanie Brown had little trouble winning the Class A and B girls titles, respectively, at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships on Saturday morning at Cony High School.

Justin Tracy and Ben Trapani had their work cut out for them.

Tracy, a senior at Mt. Blue, beat Mohamed Barre of Lewiston in the Class A race by three tenths of a second, finishing in 17 minutes, 14.1 seconds. Camden Hills’ Trapani, meanwhile, outkicked Gardiner’s Christian Heath in the Class B race, winning by five tenths of a second with a time of 17:09.8.

“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.”

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. Meanwhile, Nagy, a senior Lawrence, won her second straight KVAC A title, beating Brunswick’s Tessa Cassidy with a time of 19:27.0.

Tracy’s win helped the Mt. Blue boys to a second-place finish. 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).

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Maranacook won the KVAC B boys title with 57 points, led by a fourth-place finish by Austin Landry. Winslow was second with 89, followed by Lincoln (90), Morse (139) and Camden Hills (144).

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. 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).

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 courses tough hills.

“It definitely feels like I’m competing with them,” Nagy said of her Class B counterparts Brown and Bowman. “It’s not like, ‘Oh, don’t worry, I’m all by myself,’ I feel strong competition with all of them.”

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.”

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).

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

Also for Mt. Blue, Josh Horne finished fifth with a time of 17:35.7, while Sully Jackson and Dan Lesko finished 16th and 15th, respectively. Lewiston placed three runners in the top 10 on its way to the team title.

Jason Stevenson also finished in the top 10 for Maranacook, while teammates Kilton Webb, Luca DeAngelis and Ethan Harriman all finished in the top 20. Winslow had three runners in the top 15: Shuckrow, Griffin Davis (12th) and Thomas Cassidy (13th).

Bowman was one of four Camden Hills runners in the top 10 of the Class B girls race. She was joined by Hannah Brownawell (fifth), Emily Lopez (sixth) and Samantha Morse (eighth).

For Waterville, Tiana Thomas also finished in the top 10, finishing seventh.

Scott Martin — 621-5618

smartin@centralmaine.com


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