The Lady Seahawks persevered against adversity to a third place finish at the Mountain Valley Conference Championship cross country meet on Saturday, Oct. 18 at UMaine, Augusta.

Monmouth Academy won the MVC title with 39 points, followed by St. Dom’s, 45, BRHS, 70, Winthrop, 94 and Dirigo, 103.

Size matters in cross country and the Boothbay girls cross country team has struggled over the years to build up a team big enough to be competitive.

What they have achieved in recent years with barely enough girls to score as a team has been laudable. But they are clearly the underdog when facing teams like Monmouth Academy, who had 16 runners racing on Saturday, and St. Dom’s, who started 10.

On Saturday, Hannah Morley, team frontrunner, finished third overall at 22:35, a time and place that undoubtedly were a disappointment to the tenacious Morley, who finished second and almost a minute quicker at the MVC preview earlier this year.

From the outset of Saturday’s race, Morley seemed determined to beat Hall-Dale senior Emma Wilson (1st, 21:50), running head and head with her early in the race.

“Hannah ran a really gutsy race. She was running for first, not second and so she ended up third,” Coach Nick Scott said. “She put out so much so early, she didn’t have enough gas to beat the girl who ended up second. If she had run for second, I’m confident she would have finished second.”

Senior Morgan Crocker finished second for BRHS and 13th overall at 23:24, placing with Morley on the MVC All Conference team.

Freshman Lincoln Hamblett (14th, 23:36) finished third for the Lady Seahawks, with a performance good enough to earn All-Conference, as well.

“The really big, big, well not actually a surprise because it was our goal, was Lincoln coming in 14th and All-Conference,” Scott said. “We weren’t worried so much about time as placement. At one point, I yelled, ‘You are 15th, there is all conference (ahead of her),’ and she just zoned into that. She is running well beyond expectations and deserves congratulations for her achievement.”

Kate Friant finished 24th at 25:17, and then the Lady Seahawks waited for their fifth runner (and final scorer) to come in and determine their team fate.

Unfortunately, what the frontrunners didn’t know was that both Maya Schwehm and Genevieve Taylor, still out on the course, were both injured.

Schwehm has been troubled with a foot injury this season and at UMaine, it caused her to drop out of the race. Taylor found herself in pain as well and had stopped to walk, intending to drop out.

“Then I saw Maya and knew she was out of the race, so I had to finish,” Taylor said after the race. Taylor toughed it out to the finish line (50th, 30:50). If she had not, the team would have been unable to score.

The Lady Seahawks will join the boys at Twin Brooks in Cumberland for the Western Regional Championship meet on Saturday, Oct 25. They will need to finish in the top seven to continue on to states; they will need a very good race to do so.