For some teams, conference championships are a measuring stick, charting how far they’ve come since the beginning of the season.

Others use the races as barometers, testing the waters before the regional championships a week later.

Several local teams – some with each of the above agendas in mind – will take to the trails this weekend, hoping to prove conference supremacy.

The most intriguing race this weekend is shaping up in the Mountain Valley Conference. No fewer than five teams have a shot at winning the boys’ race, including perennial contender Lisbon, Winthrop, Monmouth, Hall-Dale and Boothbay, with Boothbay, according to Lisbon coach Hank Fuller, as the odds-on favorite.

“This is the closest competition in years,” Fuller said. “I’d put Boothbay as having the edge right now. They have a 47-second pack, and it’s all interchangeable.”

Lisbon is the five-time defending champion, though, and other teams aren’t taking that lightly.

Monmouth, meanwhile, is working on an even longer streak on the girls’ side, having won the last six MVC title races. The Mustangs will have to earn No. 7, and ironically enough, Lisbon is the team trying to track them down.

“They’ll remain the champions until someone beats them,” Fuller said. “They’re a bit more vulnerable than they have been in the past, but they’re still the champions.”

In the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference, the Lewiston boys will wear the bull’s-eye one more time, with strong competition expected from Brunswick, Morse and Mt. Blue.

“We don’t like to look at it that way,” Lewiston coach Ray Putnam said. “It’s never wise to think you’re the favorite going into a race.”

The KVAC girls’ race should be a tight one, too, with Mt. Blue having posted a solid performance at the Festival of Champions in Belfast, besting all of the other KVAC teams in a very large meet.

“Brewer came back and beat up at our relays here at Mt. Blue,” Cougars’ coach Kelley Cullenberg said. “It’s a different style of race, of course, but we certainly have our work cut out for us.”

Brewer and defending state champion Brunswick will challenge Mt. Blue.

In Class B, Leavitt has a solid team, and is looking at a top-three finish.

“If all of our runners run strong and can stay healthy, I think the boys can be near the top, maybe second or third, and the girls, same thing,” Leavitt coach Dustin Williamson said. “If everyone runs really well, we could do even better.”

Leavitt will have to fend off Maranacook and Medomak Valley, among others.

The Western Maine Conference got a jump on everyone last weekend, moving up their championship race to guard against possible weather delays.

Locally, St. Dom’s moved from last two years ago, to second-to-last last season, into 10th this year out of 14 teams in both the girls’ and boys’ races.

“We’re moving up each year, making progress,” coach Marc Lepage said.

The rescheduled meet is helping the Saints, too. Friday, they will run a Class C-only meet with NYA and Waynflete, their first of the season.

“That will be a better gauge of where we are,” Lepage said.

Most of the schools in the WMC run in Class B, and the conference doesn’t differentiate at the championships.

Poland, Gray-New Gloucester and Fryeburg are among those Class B schools in the WMC.

The Raiders took third place in the girls’ race with a 103. Poland was in seventh and G-NG in 14th. On the boys’ side, Fryeburg took fifth place, with Poland sixth and G-NG 14th.