TURNER — For the Lisbon boys cross country team, the third time was just as charming as the first two.
The Greyhounds blew away the field by placing five runners in the top 15 finishers to capture their third straight Class C title at the state cross country championships Saturday.
Junior Tyler Clark turned in the third best overall time of the day, winning the race in 16-minutes and 45-seconds over runner-up Justin Richardson of St. Dom’s and Winthrop’s Danny Soltan who placed third.
“He ran about as I expected,” said Lisbon coach Hank Fuller. “He goes out hard, he runs the middle hard and he runs the hills hard.”
“He’s a very focused athlete.”
Clark and Richardson ran out to the head of the pack together before Clark began pulling away near the one-mile mark. A few minutes later, Clark took a peek over his shoulder.
“I looked back,” said Clark. “I’m not supposed to do that, but I didn’t see him.”
Lisbon won the team title with 39 points. Winthrop was second with 97.
When the team began practicing this summer, Fuller knew he could count on four returning veterans, but he needed one more.
“At the beginning of the season we didn’t know where we stood,” said Fuller. “We didn’t have a fifth runner. Then Nick Caton came along and filled in at the fifth, like a finger in a glove.”
Caton, a junior and first-year runner, was the number five guy again Saturday.
“The thing that put us over the top,” said Fuller, “was the work the kids did preparing last summer.”
Freeport won its third consecutive C meet from the girls side with a dominating performance, besting runner-up Waynflete by a 53-84 margin. Monmouth was fourth with 115 points.
Adam Deveau of Mt. Blue recovered from his disappointing fourth-place finish at last week’s regional race in Belfast to take the Class A individual crown with a winning time of 17:03.
Deveau trailed Bonny Eagle’s Evan Embrey halfway through the race. As the two headed toward the hill portion, Deveau made his break.
“Not much before the hill I felt a burst of energy and I took (the lead),” said Deveau. “I put on the best surge that I could.”
“He knew what he had to do,” said Mt. Blue coach Kelley Cullenberg. “He doesn’t have the crazy speed like some of the track guys. Adam’s got the strength and that’s the key to a course like this.”
For the second straight year, the Cougars finished third as a team. They also missed qualifying for the New England regional meet by one place. Scarborough won its second team title in a row by a score of 48-81 over Portland. Lewiston suffered a key blow when Bashir Mohamed was unable to finish and the Blue Devils fell to eighth place.
The girls race for Class A went to Brunswick who beat Hampden by an 80-103 margin. Individually, McAuley’s Abby Iselborn completed her undefeated season by turning in the fastest time on the day. She finished the course in 19:31 to edge out Hampden’s Molly Peverada. Mandy Ivey of Oxford Hills put on a strong kick at the end to take third place.
“Usually I’m out in front of everybody,” said Iselborn. “I felt very pushed. The competition was great and it was very fast.”
The boys B race saw seven of the eight sub 17-minute finishes. Miles Bartlett won with a time of 16:33, just six seconds ahead of Poland’s Nick Williams.
“Sometimes I just watch (Bartlett’s) legs,” said Williams who had the second best time of all three classes. “I try to match his stride, but it kills me. It’s so hard.”
Cape Elizabeth (63 points) won the boys B race followed by Falmouth and York.
Madeline Glover of John Bapst won the girls B race finishing 12 seconds ahead of Maranacook’s Abby Pullen.
Cape Elizabeth took the team title over Mt. Desert by a score of 100-105.
Qualifying for the New England meet were Lisbon, Cape Elizabeth, Scarborough, Portland, Falmouth and York. On the girls side the qualifiers were Freeport, Cape Elizabeth, Brunswick, MDI, York and Old Town.
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