AUGUSTA — Just as a teammate had done to him here earlier this season, Tim Collins did Saturday to win a championship race.

In a Sept. 27 meet at Cony High School, Asher Valentine passed Collins in the final stretch in a tight battle between the two Hampden Academy cross country runners. This time, in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championships, it was Collins who made his move to narrowly beat Lewiston’s Enzo Giampaolo to the finish.

“I let him go past me, and then I did what (Asher) did last time we were: Pass me in that last 50 meters,” Collins said. “It went basically exactly how I wanted it to. I thought I went a little bit early with maybe 800 feet to go, but it worked out in the end.”

It was an exciting start to a great Class A meet for Hampden Academy, which later got a win from Addison Elliott in the girls race and won both boys and girls team titles. The Morse boys and girls swept Class B titles with Levi Riggs winning the boys race, while Leavitt’s Haley Marston won the girls event.

Collins (16 minutes, 53.5 seconds) edging out Giampaolo highlighted a strong day for the Hampden boys. Valentine (fourth place, 17:10.0) and Jack Scott (ninth, 17:45.8) also placed in the top 10 for the Broncos, who racked up 50 team points to easily beat second-place Camden Hills (96).

Elliott (20:23.6) then made it a pair of individual champions for Hampden as she beat out teammate Gretchen Plant (20:27.8) for the Class A girls title. Those two finished nearly a full minute ahead of the next finishers, Nora McCourt of Mt. Blue (21:22.2) and Cassie Middleton of Camden Hills (21:27.3).

“(Gretchen and I) were really hoping to get 1 and 2, so it’s a great feeling,” Elliott said. “We wanted to push up the hills and work together to push each other all the way through. … It’s a hilly course, but I thought it was really pretty. It was really exciting.”

The Hampden girls (28 points) made up half the top 10 with Anleigh Stevens (22:17.3) placing sixth, Natalia Charles (22:43.2) finishing ninth and Emily Kneser (22.43.3) coming in 10th. Camden Hills was runner-up with 47 points.

Riggs (17:38.8) beat out Belfast’s Tristan Hughes (18:05.1) and Lincoln Academy’s Owen Card (18:10.) in a three-way battle of Midcoast runners in the Class B boys race. Morse scored 33 points to Lincoln’s 39 to dethrone the Eagles as KVAC B champions.

“I felt good the whole way,” said Riggs, who said he felt like the favorite entering the race. “I think (our team) came out and followed the race plan really well. We went out a little slow at the beginning, and we closed really well on the back stretch. I just feel like everyone ran really well today.”

The Shipbuilders needed that with how much Lincoln Academy pushed them. With the Eagles placing five runners in the top 13, Morse needed to match them to squeak out a win — and with Wyatt Smith (fifth, 19:01.0), Ren Kauffunger (19:46.5) and Otto Hibl (19:54.9) joining Riggs in the top 10, the Shipbuilders delivered.

“We’ve gone up against (Lincoln Academy) several times this year and looked at the virtual meets, so we knew it was going to be close,” said Morse head coach Brent Luchies. “We knew we needed a strong second half of the race to pull it off, and to get that was good to see from us.”

Leavitt’s Marston easily won the B girls race, crossing the finish line in 20:37.8 to top Medomak Valley’s Ava Collamore (21:28.2). Lincoln’s Dylan Burmeister (21:34.9), Morsa’s Frida Wright (22:29.0) and Medomak’s Amber Pendleton (23:19.3) rounded out the top five.

Like the boys before them, the Morse girls earned their victory with their depth. Caroline Luchies (sixth place, 23:28.2), Lilly Forrester (eighth, 23:41.1) and Zoe Avery (23:47.4) joined Wright in the top 10 for the Shipbuilders, who earned 39 points to runner-up Lincoln’s 68.

“All season long, this has been one of our goals,” Luchies said. “I told them, ‘Nobody has to be a hero; everybody just has to do what they’ve been doing all season.’ I really like our depth, and our kids just went out and did what they had to do. It was a really good team effort.”

In Class A boys, Mt. Blue’s Henri McCourt was fourth in 17:18.8, Messalonskee’s Beckett Cote seventh (17:39.6) and Pierce Coughlin of Messalonskee 10th (17:48.1) also finished in the top 10. In the boys B race, Waterville’s Jeffrey Flees was fourth (18:48.2) and Cony’s Isaiah Sabean 10th (19:21.4) were in the top 10. In the girls B race, Cony’s Loralie Grady was seventh (23:35.3) and Hallie Coots of Nokomis 10th (23:56.7) were in the top 10.