Boothbay Region High School hosted a steamy cross country meet on Wednesday, Sept. 16, and the weather wasn’t the only thing that was hot. The Lady Seahawks cruised to an easy victory and the boys team posted their first conference meet win in a tie breaker. Freshman speedster Faith Blethen not only led the girls to victory, she also set a new course record. 

For the girls, the dynamic duo of Blethen and Hannah Morley delivered another one-two punch. As she has done so far this year, Blethen established an early lead, ran a consistent race, and was never challenged.

Morley was dogged by St. Dom’s top runners, Ella Brown and Sydney Sirois, throughout the course. Going into the woods for the final mile, Morley was in fourth place, but she was able to distance herself from both St. Dom’s girls and grab the number two spot at the finish line.

Despite the heat, both Blethen and Morley ran fast races. Blethen finished at 21:08 (a new course record) and Morley 2nd at 21:51.

Asked about her record breaking finish, Blethen said, “It feels pretty good,” and then talked about how well the rest of the team had run.

Blethen, who broke her personal record in her first race of the season, in addition to setting the home course record in her third race, said she now has her sights set on winning the Festival of Champions’ freshman race this year. 

Considering she is currently ranked third fastest high school female runner in the state, it seems like a very real possibility.

In hotly contested finishes, Loren Gengrich took 8th at 24:49, Kate Friant, 13th at 25:28, and Lincoln Hamblett, 19th, 26:08. The Lady Seahawks won the meet with 30 points, followed by St. Dom’s 41, and Monmouth, 51.

“This was the first time that the girls have won at home and the best part is that it was against the best competition in the MVC. Coming into the season Monmouth and St. Doms looked like the teams to beat and after racing against them head-to-head it appears that we have become the team with the target on its back. After doing a little research, it does appear that St. Dom’s was missing their fifth girl, which would have made the score much closer,” Coach Nick Scott wrote in an email. 

The Boothbay boys team, who were bested by Lisbon and Winthrop last week, made it clear they are not willing to settle for a third place Mountain Valley Conference finish.

Kyle Ames, who was sidelined last week, was back on track, finishing 5th at 18:57. In close pursuit, Matt Burnham finished 6th at 19:04 and Blake Erhard, 7th at 19:14. Liam Conlin finished 11th at 20:18 and Morgen Wilson, 13th at 21:18.

Scores from the top five runners placed BRHS and Lisbon in a 42 point tie. That pushed the decision to the sixth finisher and the Seahawks’ depth allowed them to prevail. Boothbay’s Will LaBrecque’s 14th place finish at 21:21, surpassed Lisbon’s sixth man’s 24th place finish. BRHS’s seventh place finisher Shane Johnson (15th, 21:26) was also well ahead of Lisbon’s seventh man (33rd place).

BRHS won the meet with 42 points, followed by Lisbon, 42, Monmouth, 79, St. Dom’s, 88 and Hall-Dale 108.

“Lisbon ran a much, much better race this week as opposed to how they performed at Winthrop. Despite their better efforts though, we tied and then won on the 6th man tie breaker.  Looking at the conference as a whole, at this point in the season things seem to pretty even between Winthrop, Lisbon, and ourselves. Winthrop is slightly faster right now, but overall, I'm not sure that I have ever seen the conference quite so tight among three different teams,” Scott wrote.

On Sept. 23, BRHS travels to University of Maine Augusta for a midseason race with all conference teams on the MVC championship course. 

“Next week’s race will give us a really clear idea of how the conference race in October is starting to shape up,” Scott said.