CUMBERLAND — Jacob Hickey had no problem subduing the field at the Mountain Valley Conference cross country championships Oct. 15 at the University of Maine at Augusta.

Hickey, a Winthrop High School senior, won that race by a near two minutes.

He just as dominant Saturday at Twin Brook Recreation Area.

Hickey won the Southern C championship with a time of 16:40.62. The runner-up, Maine Coast Waldorf senior Tucker Pierce, was well behind in 17:22.76.

Maine Coast, however, would win the team title thanks to strong performances from Dylan Wu (fifth), Calvin Soule (32nd) and Davis Ritger (36th). It edged Waynflete, 70-72. Defending champ Boothbay Region finished third at 80.

“This is their first regional title,” Maine Coast coach Morgan Adams said. “Two years ago when we won the state meet, we lost to Boothbay by one point at the regionals, so this is really important to them.”

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Boothbay sophomore Faith Blethen shook off the tough conditions to win the girls race. She surged to a three-second victory in 21:11. Alexandra Hammerton of St. Dominic edged Olivia Skillings of Maine Coast Waldorf for runner-up by one-hundredth of a second, in 21:14.41.

“It’s awful conditions for everybody,” Blethen said. “I’m not the only one who went through it. Every runner, start to finish, had to fight through this stuff and they deserve a pat on the back for it.”

St. Dominic, of Auburn, won the girls team competition with 31 points to Waynflete’s 60. Maine Coast Waldorf was third at 73 followed by Traip Academy (108) and Monmouth Academy (127). By two points, North Yarmouth Academy (129) failed to qualify for the state meet because it finished in the bottom half of the nine-school field.

On the boys side, Willson Moore of Waynflete nipped Nick Neveu of Maine Coast by a hundredth of a second for third despite a Superman-style dive across the finish line by Neveu.

“He leaves it all out there,” Adams said of Neveu. “He did one of those foaming-at-the-mouth things (two) years ago so we keep our eye on him. When I can’t find him at the end of a race, I can usually find him in the med tent.”

CLASS B

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Greely High swept the meet decisively, with the girls knocking off defending state champ Yarmouth by 23 points and the boys running away from two-time defending state champ Freeport by 39.

“Yes, a hard race takes more out of you than a hard workout,” coach Davod Dowling said, “but we made up for it in the training sessions. We prepare for the end of the season.”

The Maranacook girls qualified for the state championships by virtue of their fourth-place finish. York took third.

Maranacook freshman Molly McGrail, who won the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B race, finished 11th at the regionals Saturday in 20:44.44. Teammate Lauren Parent followed in 12th with a time of 20:56.42. Maddie Taylor also had a strong race for the Black Bears, finshing 21st in 21:17.62.

The top eight schools as well as the top 30 individuals advanced to the state meet next Saturday in Belfast.

Yarmouth senior Abby Hamilton and junior Luke Laverdiere earned individual honors on a chilly, rainy morning. Hamilton put 23 seconds on a field of more than 100 girls and covered the 3.1-mile course in 18:53. Carolyn Todd of Greely was second in 19:16 and her teammate, Katherine Leggat-Barr, the two-time defending champion, was third in 19:20.

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“It’s a little shocking,” said Hamilton, who missed the Festival of Champions race in Belfast earlier this month because of injury. “I didn’t really expect this.”

In the boys race, Laverdiere hopped playfully across the finish line to win by 22 seconds over runner-up Henry Jaques of Freeport in 16:13, and nearly a minute over third-place Mitch Libby of Wells.

Ruslan Reiter, of Maranacook, was eighth in 17:41.37.

“Next week is a little more important than this week,” Laverdiere said. “I made a pretty decisive move at the one-mile mark to establish a lead and then just stayed relaxed after that.”

Laverdiere slipped and fell on the last turn on the slick grass.

“That was the only treacherous part,” he said. “Most of (the course) was decent because it’s gravel and it drains pretty well.”

Freeport and Wells each finished with 86 points but Freeport won the sixth-runner tiebreaker to take second. Lincoln Academy was third with 100, followed by Yarmouth (117), Cape Elizabeth (176), York (181) and Maranacook (187).


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