AUGUSTA —Six weeks ago, the Monmouth Academy girls weren’t just wondering if they could restore themselves to prominence in the Mountain Valley Conference, they weren’t sure if they would even have a team.

On Saturday, they reminded the MVC what being a team in cross country’s championship season is all about.

After having their six-year string of conference titles snapped by Lisbon last year, the Mustangs reclaimed the crown with an impressive collective effort from three senior and two freshman runners. 

“These last couple of weeks we’ve really come together as a team,” said senior Abby Szotkowski, who finished 13th overall. “We’ve bonded. We worked really hard and going in we knew what we had to do to be successful.”

Freshman Kayla Minkowski led the Mustang pack by placing ninth, followed by Szotkowski, senior Devon Ayer (14th), senior Audessy Chasse (23rd) and freshman Jasmine Cook  (27th).

The Mustangs went into the season with the minimum five runners to qualify for team scoring. They had six runners compete Saturday.

“It took a lot of recruiting,” Monmouth co-coach Tom Menendez said. “We came up with a couple of freshmen, one
(Cook) that has only run twice this year and one (Minkowski) ran three times this year. When I look at the times, I’ll bet you they all had PR’s.”  

“Tradition never graduates,” he added. 

“Tradition helps a lot,” Szotkowski said. “We do so many things to keep our tradition alive, dating back to the ’90s, and I think that’s what helps keep our program strong and unique, We work for eight or nine weeks all for these next three races, so they’re really important to us. It’s usually about the time we start to peak.”

Most other MVC schools were not as fortunate as Monmouth in forming and/or keeping a team together. Only three of the 11 schools represented had enough runners to qualify as a team. Lisbon, which didn’t have one of its top runners, Angie Bulgin, due to injury, finished two points behind Monmouth in second.

Hall-Dale’s Laura MacDonald, a freshman, won the girls’ race in 21:53, 35 seconds ahead of Lisbon’s Meagan Thomas. 

“I think I started out a little too fast, but as we started going into
the woods I think I paced myself a little better,” Thomas said. “The
girl ahead of me definitely set a good pace and kept my mind going. I’m
happy with second. The race was awesome.”

“That’s her PR,” Lisbon coach Hank Fuller said of Thomas. “She picked a perfect day to do it.”

The MVC’s newest school, St. Dom’s, was the favorite going into the race,
but the Saints began the day without two of their top six. Then their top runner,
Alyse Carney, rolled her ankle in warm-ups. The Saints finished third,
four points back of the lead.

Carney finished eighth, two seconds
in front of a late-charging Minkowsky and three seconds ahead of
Madison’s Jessica Theberge.

“It affected me a little bit,” said Carney, a former soccer player in
her first year of cross country competition. “I just tried to finish it and get in front of (Theberge).”

“We
knew it would be tough today, but our goal was to give it our best
effort and see where we are. We did that and we were within four points
of winning the conference,” St. Dom’s coach Ryan Deschenes said. “Even
though we had  a shot at winning a conference title and it would be
great for our program, I’d rather have us unhealthy this week than next
(at regionals).”

Anna Doyle of Winthrop, Telstar’s Taylor Maines, Sikwani Dana of
Carrabec, Morgan Lee of Telstar and Cadyn Wilson of Hall-Dale rounded
out the rest of the top 10. 

Boothbay defended its boys’ title with relative ease, placing four runners in the top nine en route to 40 points. Lisbon finished second with 68 points, but Fuller was hoping to see if his team could break up the Seahawks’ pack. They nearly did with Alex Branson’s fifth-place finish and Lance Thomas, Mac LeGloahec and Hayden Sweet placing 12-14.

“I thought our boys ran well today. Boothbay’s very difficult,” Fuller said. “I think we moved up on them a little bit. They’re going to be very tough to beat.”

Monmouth (68 points), Hall-Dale (118) and Telstar (146) completed the top five.

Matt McClintock of Madison took individual honors in a time of 17:03. Chase Brown of Boothbay finished second (17:33), followed by Telstar’s Ben Lewis and Monmouth’s Patrick McInnis.

“I think I got out well in the beginning,” McInnis said. “The guys who led the race took off real fast, but I stuck with them for a decent amount of time and then they just pulled away. I’ve had ankle problems for the past couple of weeks, so I’ve been kind of taking it easy but still pushing it when I can.”

Rounding out the top 10 were Branson, Boothbay’s Matt Forgues and Nate Schwehm, Dylan Ricker of Carrabec, Tom Brown of Boothbay and Adam Mahar of Telstar.

Monmouth Academy’s Devon Ayer (93) and Kayla Minkowsky (97) run with Winthrop High School’s Molly Lindsey (111) during the Mountain Valley Conference Cross Country Championship in Augusta on Saturday.

St. Dom’s Alyse Carney climbs ahead of Madison’s Jessica Theberge (91) and Monmouth Academy’s Kayla Minkowsky during the Mountain Valley Conference Cross Country Championship in Augusta on Saturday.

Lisbon High School’s Hayden Stewart (29) runs amongst the pack during the start of the Mountain Valley Conference Cross Country Championship in Augusta on Saturday.

Monmouth Academy’s Patrick McInnis runs through a wet section of the course during the Mountain Valley Conference Cross Country Championship in Augusta on Saturday.