The Boothbay Harbor Seahawks and Wiscasset Wolverines combined cross country teams rocked their home competition Sept. 16. The “Seawolves” bested guest teams from Dirigo, Richmond, Hall-Dale and Telstar Regional high schools with the boys taking first over Richmond by 10 points; the girls, first over Dirigo by 12 points.

Coach Nick Scott said the boys were down two of their top six athletes, so winning the meet was a fantastic outcome. “They were really super solid. Just comparing times from a year ago, the guys ran a lot faster. The girls are just so much more on top of their running so far this season with their focus and determination (and) they’re just lopping minutes off their times from a year ago. That's really encouraging.”

Bryan Gagnon took a close second place, three seconds behind Richmond’s Benjamin Fornier, with 18:54.8. Gagnon took nearly two minutes off his time from the 2021 home race and ran a lifetime personal record. Gryffin Kristan took third with 19:40.3 and Ryan Clark, Austin Trask and Rodi Mayne were close behind in fifth through seventh in 20:01.5, 20:20.7 and 21:12.1. Nearly all returning athletes broke records in some form: Kristan took 13 seconds and Clark 30 seconds off last year’s home meet results and Mayne ran a lifetime personal record.

Cleyton Splaine took 11th in 23:10.3 about two seconds away from a personal record. Ross Gaffney took 16th in 30:55.7; Sawyer Blake, 17th, 30:57.5; and Chase Mansfield, 23rd, 36:55.3.

Laura Chapman took first for the girls in 23:04.2, which was more than 1:40 better than her first place time at last year’s home meet. Richmond’s Breonna DuFresne drove a wedge between the third place finish of Maddie Orchard and the fifth place finish of Julia Truesdell who were separated by just over three seconds, in 24:06.5 and 24:09.7, and who took three minutes and two and a half minutes off their 2021 home meet times.

Emily Gilliam took sixth in 24:58.5 and also took three minutes off her home course time. Sarah Harris ran her 5k race debut, taking 15th in 31:18 and Maddie Andreason took 19th in her second ever 5k in 33:36.9.

Volunteer turnout was also over the top with football players and other students showing up for meet setup and timing, said Scott. “A huge thank you to all of the parents who organized and brought food for the runners this evening … It was awesome there were a lot of student volunteers today. There were a bunch of football guys and it was really cool to see them come out and support the team. Then there were some students from school who came down to volunteer which is, again fantastic to see the school spirit.”

Scott said the meet brought out about half of the Mountain Valley Conference which will join the rest at the Sept. 23 mid-season meet at University of Maine at Augusta.

Said Scott, “It is a prime opportunity to get a glimpse of where we are as a team versus our conference competition.”