Boothbay Region Elementary School’s cross-country team began training in August and have been working hard ever since. Running for BRES this year are: 7th graders Laura Chapman, and Maddie Orchard and sixth graders Rose Campbell, Maggie Halter, Abby Orchard and Sophie White. Eight graders running for the boys are Dominick Dow, Dylan North, CJ Savastano and Sebastian Warren-Burdin along with sixth graders Kolton Campbell and Afton Warren-Burdin and newcomer Colby Hicks.

Great Salt Bay hosted the first meet of the season for the Busline League at the Damariscotta River Association with Boothbay, Medomak, Edna Drinkwater School, Isleboro and Searsport all attending. It was tough competition with Great Salt Bay’s girls team scoring a perfect score for first place overall followed by Edna Drinkwater School in second. It came down to the sixth runner between Medomak and Boothbay for which team was going to take third place. The winner this time was Medomak with Boothbay taking fourth place overall. Searsport and Isleboro unfortunately didn’t have enough girls to place.

The boys placed fourth (88), Edna Drinkwater School third (77), Medomak second (49) and Great Salt Bay placed first (25). Boothbay’s Dominick Dow placed second overall on the 2.1-mile course with a time of 13:46 behind Searsport’s Gage Bruns’s time of 13:38. Medomak’s Noah Morris placed third overall followed by a slew of Great Salt Bay runners beginning with Roan Donaghy 15:04, Conor Glasier 15:26, Elliott Chapman 16:03, Braden Bessey 16:14 and Tanner Peasley 16:15. Following them in a close race for ninth and 10th place were Isleboro’s Finnegan Calderwood 16:52.51 and Medomak’s Jack Martin 16:52.52. It was a great day for all the runners! It will be fun to watch what plays out this year in the Busline League.

The second meet of the season was held at home in Boothbay Harbor. Another beautiful day with lots of excitement as Dominick Dow (13:06.21) out ran Wiscasset’s Austin Trask (13:06.59) to place first overall on the 2.1-mile course. Following Dominick from BRES were: CJ Savastano (19:18), Dylan North (21:55), Kolton Campbell (22:03), Afton Warren-Burdin (35:52). Team scores for the boys were: Great Salt Bay 35, Wiscasset 48, Appleton 64 and BRES 89.

The girls race overall winner was Great Salt Bay’s Audrey Hufnagel with a time of 14:44. Team scores were as follows: Great Salt Bay 15 (with another perfect score for a perfect day) first place, Appleton 52 for second place, Wiscasset 81 for third place and BRES 97 for fourth place.

Maddie Orchard led the Boothbay girls with a time of 17:10. Followed by Laura Chapman (17:11), Rose Campbell 19:19, Abby Orchard 21:19, Maggie Halter 24:17 and Sophie White 25:34. All the girls decreased their times this week.

The Wildcats’ next meet is Thursday, Sept. 26 at Belfast.