CUMBERLAND — The Hall-Dale boys cross country team moved a step closer toward its first state championship since 1988 by winning the Western Class C regional title Saturday at Twin Brook Recreation Area.

The Bulldogs scored 92 points to nip runner-up Waynflete, which had 106. Winthrop and Monmouth also qualified for next week’s state meet in Belfast by virtue of finishing in the top half of the field.

“I was happy,” said Hall-Dale coach Chris Poulin, whose Bulldogs won the Mountain Valley Conference title last week. “The margin of victory was a little narrower than at the MVCs. I was surprised that Waynflete finished as well as they did today.”

Josh Ringer led Hall-Dale with a seventh-place finish while Matt Plourde placed 17th, Chris Pomerleau 18th and James McAuliffe 21st. The Bulldogs got strong performances from their other three runners — Harry Cheung (29th), Thomas Plourde (36th) and Austin Gardner (47th).

“It was the fifth through seventh runners who stepped it up today and made all the difference,” Poulin said.

The Maranacook boys and girls teams each qualified in Class B, with the boys finishing fifth and the girls fourth. In Class C, the Monmouth girls qualified for the state meet with a fifth-place finish.

Winthrop finished a close fourth in the Class C boys race led by Marc Hachey, who finished third and Ben Allen (5th). Winner Jack Pierce of Merriconeag had the fastest time of the day at 16 minutes, 38.3 seconds. Monmouth took fifth place led by Ben Bailey (22nd), Dylan Thomas (25th), Tyler Horsford (26th) and Stewart Buzzell (28th). Ashleigh Hartford (25th), Carey Knowles (27th) and Tiffany Pease (30th) led the Monmouth girls to fifth place.

Austin Landry finished seventh to lead the Maranacook boys while teammate Jason Stevenson finished 25th. Fryeburg’s Silas Eastman won the race in 16:47.4. Maranacook’s Caroline Colan finished second behind Greely’s Kirstin Sandreuter to lead the Black Bears to fourth place while teammate Hannah Depres placed 10th.

The top 30 individual finishers in each race also qualified for next week’s state meet. In Class B that included Gardiner’s Christian Heath, who finished 10th. Richmond’s Travis Robbins qualified by finishing 24th in the Class C race. Class C girls qualifiers included Madison’s Bronte Ellis (10th), Winthrop’s Angel Abbott (12th), Molly Kieltyka (15th) and Kaitlin Souza (22nd) and Hall-Dale’s Emma Wilson (16th).

Copy the Story Link