Oct. 16 update: The Boothbay Region High School girls and boys cross country teams have captured the Mountain Valley Conference championship!

Original story: After two months of running and racing, the Maine high school cross country championship season is finally here. First up this week are the conference championship races, followed in subsequent weeks by regional championships and then finally the state championship meet. Both Boothbay Region High School cross country teams are well prepared for these high stakes races, and the Lady Seahawks have never been so well positioned.

Heading into the Mountain Valley Conference championship race this Friday, Oct. 16 at UMaine Augusta, the Lady Seahawks are the favorites. But they will need to outrun a strong St. Dom’s team to capture the title. If the Boothbay girls are successful, this will be their first conference win. Their previous closest bid was in 2013, when they lost by one point. This season, the Lady Seahawks, led by Faith Blethen and Hannah Morley, have run strong and consistently week after week; their only weakness is their small roster. With only five runners, no Lady Seahawk can afford a bad day.

In the last regular season race at Lisbon on Friday, Oct. 9, the Lady Seahawks, who have won every conference meet this year, faced St. Dom’s, Lisbon, Carrabec, Madison and Wiscasset. BRHS bested St. Dom’s (the only other team with enough finishers to score) 24 to 31. Blethen, setting a another new course record, finished first at 20:12. 

Blethen is almost a certainty for the MVC individual title win, but the battle for second place promises to be a nail biter. Last year, St. Dom’s Sydney Sirois won MVC runner-up in a time of 22:35, with Boothbay’s Morley finishing third, 10 seconds behind her. This season, Morley and Sirois have raced against each other in three conference meets. Morley has beaten Sirois in two of those three races, most recently last week. In Lisbon on Oct. 9, Morley crossed the finish line 2nd at 20:44 (a new PR), with Sirois three seconds behind her at 20:47. They head into the MVC title race in a dead heat.

Freshman Loren Gengrich continues to improve. At Lisbon, she broke her PR again, finishing 7th at 22:57. Lincoln Hamblett crossed the finish line in 8th position at 23:44 and Kate Friant 11th at 24:50.

The boys are the returning MVC champions but will need an exceptionally good day to hold onto the title. At the MVC preview race on Sept. 23, Winthrop runners beat Boothbay, 42-57. This week in Augusta, BRHS will be looking to close that 15 point gap and stay in front of Lisbon.

At Lisbon last week, BRHS finished second with 35 points, behind Lisbon, 29, and well ahead of St. Dom’s, 76 and Carrabec, 90.

Kyle Ames led the Boothbay scorers, finishing 3rd at 18:16, followed by Matt Burnham (5th, 18:27), Liam Conlin (9th, 19:37), Bayly Gaughan-Carrasco (10th, 19:52) and Shane Johnson (12th, 20:00). Also finishing for BRHS were Will LaBrecque (16th, 20:24), Sam Betts (17th, 20:38), Loren Wilson (19th, 20:47), Graham Bryer (20th, 20:49), Sam Burnham (24th, 22:26) and Max Hoecker (32nd, 28:14).  Freshman Blake Erhard, who has consistently placed third for BRHS, did not run due to illness. 

The MVC championship race will be held Friday, Oct. 16 at U Maine Augusta. Race time is 3 p.m.