CUMBERLAND — Mt. Blue senior Josh Horne expected to be challenged at Saturday’s Class A state cross country meet. He wasn’t.

Horne led from start to finish on the rolling course at Twin Brook Recreation Area and made a little history in the process. He became the first runner in the history of the storied program to win the conference, regional and state meets in the same season.

“It feels so amazing,” Horne said. “This has been my dream for so long.”

Horne had already opened a sizeable lead by the time he crested the first hill, about a quarter mile from the start,

“I was surprised nobody was with me,” he said.”I just stuck with that lead the whole time. The third mile I was struggling but I knew I had a huge gap. I just had to keep that gap up and that’s exactly what I did.”

Horne finished the 3.1 mile course in 16 minutes, 43.79 seconds, 18 seconds in front of Lewiston’s Isaiah Harris. Mt. Blue junior Dan Lesko finished 11th. Lewiston ran away with the team title, placing five runners among the top 17, beating runner-up Scarborough by 43 points. Bonny Eagle’s Kialeigh Marston finished first in the girls race to lead the Scots to the title. Cony freshman Anne Guadalupi led the early part of the race but faded to 10th.

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The Monmouth girls and boys placed fourth and fifth, respectively, in Class C, with the boys losing on a tiebreaker to Mountain Valley Conference rival Winthrop.

“The guys ran real well,” Monmouth coach Tom Menendez said. “The pack time was 37 seconds. We ran like we’re supposed to. The girls were outstanding in fourth place. We beat Boothbay so we were the top MVC team this year.”

Junior Ben Allen led Winthrop with a fourth-place finish, 27 seconds behind winner Josef Holt of Telstar.

“I didn’t have a great day,” Allen said. “I didn’t feel that great but it was fun.”

Fort Kent’s Matthew Toussaint finished second while North Yarmouth’s Matt Malcolm beat Allen by a second.

“I’m not going to lie, the Fort Kent kid surprised me,” Allen said. “Props to him.”

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Hall-Dale junior Chris Pomerleau placed sixth. Boothbay won the boys championship, edging Orono 68-70. The Class C girls race was also close with Orono nipping Washburn 48-50. Washburn senior Carsyn Koch won the individual title for the fourth year in a row.

In Class B, Ellsworth’s Dan Curts posted the day’s best time, 16:09.22, but his Eagles lost narrowly to Cape Elizabeth for the team championship. Waterville’s Chris Cote finished ninth, Maranacook’s Jason Stevenson 13th and Erskine’s Erik Dodge 16th. Greely’s Kirstin Sandreuther posted the lowest girls time of the day, 18:37.96, to help the Rangers to a third-place finish. Mount Desert Island won the team title, beating runner-up Freeport by 41 points. Maranacook’s Hannah Despres finished 10th while her team placed sixth as did the Maranacook boys.

“We had sort of an off day in general,” Maranacook coach Roselea Kimball said. “It was so cold last week that I thought this week we were going to do better, but overall the whole field was slower.”

Gary Hawkins — 621-5638ghawkins@centralmaine.comTwitter: @GaryHawkinsKJ


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