The Maine high school cross country season is upon us. Fall’s cool days offer perfect weather for running and the Boothbay Region High School cross country teams appear well-prepared for the season finale.

For the Seahawks, the championship season begins with the Mountain Valley Conference Championship race on Saturday, Oct. 15 at the Univeristy of Maine at Augusta. Both Seahawks teams are the defending champions and the boys team is definitely in contention for its fourth straight MVC win.

Faith Blethen, last year’s MVC female champion, appears poised for her second MVC championship title. The girls team is still in the running to retain its title, but will need to unseat a strong Monmouth squad to do so.

In the last race of the regular season at Lisbon on Oct. 7, BRHS boys easily clinched the event and the girls team placed third.

Kyle Ames (3rd, 18:29) led the Seahawks team across the finish line, followed closely by Blake Erhard (4th, 18:34). Will Perkins (8th, 19:36), Rowan Kristan, (9th, 19:46) and Bayly Gaughan-Carrasco (12th, 20:37) also scored for BRHS. Rounding out the top seven were Sam Betts (13th, 20:43) and Will LaBrecque (15th, 20:51).

Boothbay easily outran the competition, scoring 30 team points, followed by Lisbon, 48; Madison, 80; Winthrop, 97; and Oak Hill, 116.

In the girls race, Faith Blethen was again dominant, finishing first at 20:34. In other results, Kate Friant was 9th, 24:41; Loren Genrich, 11th, 25:18; Evy Case, 19th, 27:36; and Lincoln Hamblett 22nd, 29:02.

In a tight race, Monmouth won top honors with 40 points, followed by Madison, 50; Boothbay, 51; and Oak Hill, 88.