POLAND – Tyler Clark readily admits he’s not in great shape at this point in the season, but he certainly appeared to be in midseason form Friday.

The Lisbon senior pulled away from Poland’s Nick Williams in the final half mile to capture the high school cross country race at Range Pond State Park in a winning time of 16:44. Williams finished in a time of 17:01. The Lisbon boys (38 points) won the team title over Poland (50 points). North Yarmouth (46 points) won the girls race by one point, nipping Monmouth and Yarmouth.

Williams and Clark are two of the top runners in the state. The last time they had faced each other was in last fall’s New England Championship at Thetford, Vt. At that race, Williams finished as the top Maine runner after nipping Clark at the finish.

At Range Pond, Williams quickly broke to the front and Clark went with him.

“Coming into the race, I had no idea what the course looked like,” said Clark. “Nick walked the course with us, but I was still unsure of the turns. I wanted to stay with him.”

The duo pulled away from the pack early and jockeyed back and forth for the lead through the first two miles.

“We were going back and forth,” said Williams. “Then he went and I couldn’t do it. The last mile I couldn’t keep up with him. He’s in a little better condition than I am and had a little something extra the last mile.”

As Clark began pulling away, he didn’t look back.

“I heard him,” said Clark. “He was coughing for a while. Once I came toward the finish, I knew I had him beat.”

“Two of the classiest runners in the state went head-to-head today,” said Lisbon coach Hank Fuller. “Nobody backed down. This was an early-season chestnut.”

The Greyhounds also received a strong race from Aaron Cloutier, who finished fourth while their first five runners finished in the top 16.

“Our team ran well for this point of the season,” said Fuller. “Our fourth and fifth kids did a nice job.”

In the girls’ race, Olivia O’Reilly appeared to be a distance fourth behind a pack of three runners after two miles. As she came out of the woods for the stretch run to the finish, the North Yarmouth junior had pulled into the lead and sprinted to the win in a time of 21:49. Yarmouth’s Anna Makaretz (21:53) came in second.

“I tried to be patient,” said O’Reilly. “Finally, I caught up to them and pushed the pace a bit. This is my first cross country season. I really didn’t know what to expect.”

Monmouth’s Kerstin Grenier finished in fifth place as the Mustangs had six runners cross in the top 13.

The Mustangs won the tie breaker over the Clippers to finish second.

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