TURNER CENTER – The Lisbon Greyhounds made it look easy.

In what was expected to be a close three-team race for the Class C boys’ cross country crown at Saturday’s State Championships, the Greyhounds took control midway through the course to capture their fourth consecutive team championship by defeating runner-up Foxcroft by a 54-105 margin.

“This is exhilarating to win the way we did today,” said Lisbon coach Hank Fuller. “But it’s a relief. We’ve had a bulls-eye painted on us. I’ll sleep well tonight.”

Lisbon’s Tyler Clark pulled away from a small pack of runners near the 600-meter mark and increased his lead with every stride. Halfway through the race he had opened up a 70-meter lead over Traip’s Dakota Rees. As he rounded the final turn, there was no one else in sight. Clark sprinted to the finish line in a winning time of 16:25, a full 49 seconds ahead of runner-up Rees, in capturing his second individual championship.

“It was self-motivation,” said Clark of his strong finish with no one challenging him. “Every race I have to kick it home.”

Winthrop was expected to be Lisbon’s top threat, but the Ramblers suffered a devastating blow before the race even began. Top runner Danny Soltan fell 15 minutes before the race while warming up on the track adjacent to the starting area. During the fall, he suffered a blow to his head.

“It wasn’t our day,” said Winthrop coach Jay Lindsey. “We were going over to the coaches meeting, and he came over and said, ‘I just fell.'”

Soltan said he felt fine at the start of the race and was in the top four until he reached the hill just after the two-mile mark. At that point, he was unable to continue. Without him, the Ramblers fell to a distant fourth-place finish. Soltan, along with one of his teammates, was taken to the hospital by ambulance to be checked out.

Even if Soltan had turned in his usual top finish, the Greyhounds would have still been victorious. Nick Caton finished in fourth-place for Lisbon with teammate Aaron Cloutier placing ninth. Ethan Masselli (16th) and Nick Jones rounded out the team scoring as the Greyhounds placed all five runners in the top 34.

Mattanawcook’s Renee Laflamme won the girls’ race in a time of 20:38 with Freeport turning in its fourth consecutive team title.

The boys’ A race belonged to Scarborough (109 points) with Cheverus being the runner-up with 126 points. Lewiston (131) and Edward Little (138) followed the Stags in the standings.

“I think we ran great,” said Lewiston coach Ray Putnam. “We had four runners in the top 28. We did the best we could.”

Bangor’s Casey Quaglia (17:00) had to overcome some adversity in winning the boys’ race. The team bus was over an hour late picking up the team. By the time the bus showed up at the site, it was too late for the team to walk the course.

“I’m a rookie at this,” said the converted track star. “Coming to the starting line, you look at all of the kids in the starting boxes and the nerves kick in. It was nothing I’d seen before. Then I took a wrong turn and lost the lead. I got it back just out of the woods.”

Brunswick repeated as the girls’ Class A champions while Scarborough’s Erica Jesseman (19:39) turned in the top girls’ time on the day.

The much-anticipated boys’ B race didn’t disappoint. Falmouth’s Ethan Shaw broke away from Caribou’s Sam Sheehan near the top of the hill and turned in the top time of the day (16:23). Poland’s Nick Williams (16:35) was third with Tim Even (16:47) of Fryeburg placing fourth. Cape Elizabeth had all five runners with sub-18 minutes times in the top 14 spots and cruised to the team crown.

Hilary Maxim of Old Town had Cape Elizabeth’s Emily Attwood in her hip pocket for much of the race, but out-kicked the Capers’ freshman phenom in the final 1,000 meters to win the girls’ B race. MDI edged Cape by an 85-88 score in the team race.