One of the only things that can derail a top high school cross country runner, especially in the front of the race where there is no established pack, is a wrong turn. At a recent race in Brunswick, Lily Hanstein of Mt. Blue did just that (through no fault of her own) and wound up running an extra half mile.

“She was starting to make some headway,” said Mt. Blue coach Kelley Cullenberg. “She had come through her one-mile split at an incredible pace, and her two-mile was the fastest of the year, but she ended up running an extra half-mile loop that wasn’t necessary because a volunteer assistant from another team pointer her and a few other runners in the wrong direction.”

Despite the wrong turn, Hanstein finished in the top 20, and more importantly for the Cougars, the team placed four runners inside of top contender Mt. Ararat’s fourth runner, Rose Lebel.

“I know they rested their three top runners for the race like they did last year,” said Cullenberg. “Still, I am encouraged that we did as well as we did. It becomes a different race without the top runners from Mt. Ararat.”

We’re good, too

Don’t look now, but the Mt. Blue boys’ cross country team is staring an undefeated regular season square in the face.

“I know there are a few teams we don’t really see,” said Cullenberg. “We miss EL, we don’t see Morse in a regular meet, but they are undefeated so far in Maine, which is something they weren’t expecting, but have worked hard for and deserve.”

Mt. Ararat’s boys team also impressed Cullenberg after nearly knocking the Cougars off at a meet last week.

Getting better all the time

Sure they haven’t faced the horses of the Western Maine Conference that are Greely, Falmouth and York, but don’t try and tell Poland that its 12-3 record isn’t impressive.

“We have all of the runners in under 20 minutes,” said coach Ray Lafreniere. “So far, so good.”

Thanks to freshman Nick Williams, who lowered his personal best time to 17:28 at a tough Lake Region trail last week, the Knights are cruising.

“It’s different, racing cross country versus running on the track,” said Lafreniere. “We’ve worked a little bit on who to go out with, how fast to go out. Last week, he lowered his time at Lake Region in one week from 18:02 to 17:28. That’s a lot of time to knock off in one week. He’s learning fast.”

The team as a whole this season has been disciplined as well, taking time out to run extra 400’s at the school track on Sunday.

Muddled conference

Speaking of the WMC, if Greely and Falmouth are taken out of the equation, or even conceded the top two spots in the conference, there are a lot of questions about which schools might come next.

“It’s such a toss-up right now,” said Gray-New Gloucester coach Lowell Fancher. “It looks pretty even after you get past the top.”

The Patriots are in solid shape as sophomore Sam Bennett continues to gain time on his personal best, finishing in the top[ five in a few races recently. Bennett’s brother Chris, a junior, is starting to climb back as well following an injury, and is within a minute of his younger brother’s time.