The Seahawks-Wolverines cross-country teams traveled to Belfast Oct. 5 for the Festival of Champions. FOC is considered by many Maine high schools to be the pinnacle of cross country season – the teams faced around 1,000 male athletes and over 600 woman athletes from nearly 70 high school teams around Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.

Will Perkins led the boys in 21st with a time of 16:38; Graham Harris, 163rd; 18:24; Nathan Chatterton, 186th, 18:32; Fox Elder, 199th, 18:37; Lucas Hardwick, 234th, 18:56; Mason Erhard, 253rd, 19:02; Ryan Russell, 257th, 19:03; Gryffin Kristan, 263rd, 19:05; Nathan Gilliam, 409th, 20:06; Bryan Gagnon, 575th, 21:07; Ryan Amaral, 646th, 21:37; Ryan Clark, 658th, 21:41; Quinn Ranta, 756th, 22:40; Gavin Carlson, 862nd, 24:12; Zach Rollins, 863rd, 24:15; Nate Benoit, 867th, 24:21; and Owen Barter, 947th, 26:57.

The boys team placed 28th out of 67 teams competing at the Belfast event.

Freshman runners also raced well with Kristan leading his team in 30th. Gagnon placed 105th; Amaral, 125th; Clark, 127th; and Benoit, 180th. The freshman team placed 15th out of 22 teams and faced about 230 athletes.

Emerson Harris led the Lady Seahawks-Wolverines team placing 263rd with a time of 23:35; Ava Schlosser, 276th, 23:44; Leni Elder, 448th, 26:05; Reese Hesseltine, 488th, 26:46; Zada Smith, 523rd, 27:43; and Delly Clarkson, 569th, 29:18. The girls placed 54th out of 56 teams.

Eighteen athletes improved their personal records: Fox Elder, -0:01; Carlson, -0:02; Chatterton, -0:10; Perkins and Harris, -0:11; Kristan, -0:14; Clark, -0:15; Schlosser, -0:18; Amaral, -0:23; Russell, -0:29; Hardwick, -0:42; Gagnon, -0:53; Hesseltine, -1:05; Emerson Harris, -1:07; Gilliam, -1:08; Benoit, -1:19; Rollins, -1:33; and Barter, -1:43.

Nearly all athletes outperformed last year’s times at FOC.

The cross-country teams race next at Lisbon on Friday, Oct. 11.