BELFAST — Melody Lam displayed the toughness and resiliency of a true champion Saturday. Two weeks after a disappointing third-place finish in the conference championship and three days after battling an illness, the Mt. Blue senior put both of those setbacks along with the rest of the pack behind her.

Lam dominated the Eastern Maine Class A cross country regional race for the second consecutive year and led her team to a runner-up finish to Mt. Ararat.

Lam jumped out to the head of the pack and kept on trucking throughout the race. Despite being sick during the week, she appeared strong from start to finish. Only after crossing the finish line did she show any signs of fatigue.

“She’d been very sick up until Wednesday,” said Mt. Blue coach Kelley Cullenberg. “We weren’t sure if she was going to be able to go. As soon as I heard her laughing two days ago, I knew we were going to be OK. Melody’s not herself unless she’s laughing.”

Her competitors certainly weren’t laughing Saturday. For the second straight year, Mt. Ararat’s Kate Spies and Brunswick’s Kathleen McMahon finished second and third, respectively. The duo ran together the entire race with no one threatening to break them up, but they posed no threat to Lam.

“Normally I don’t go out that fast,” Lam said. “I went out in a 5:48 mile. I went out kind of quick and just tried to hold onto the lead. I pretty much ran alone the whole time.”

Lam held a 13-second lead near the midway point. She finished the race in 19:37.72, which was 18 seconds faster than Spies.

Mt. Ararat won the team competition by a 54-58 margin over Mt. Blue. Edward Little finished a surprising third, with Brunswick, Brewer and Messalonskee rounding out the schools qualifying for next week’s state final in Cumberland.

“The girls ran a great race,” said EL coach Dan Campbell, who saw four of his girls earn a top-15 finish. “We came here to redeem ourselves from last year. Our goal was to make it to the state meet, and we peaked just perfectly.”

Other local runners finishing in the top 10 were Mt. Blue’s Addie Cullenberg (sixth place) and Gwen Beacham (ninth), Sorrel Dunn of Oxford Hills (seventh) and EL’s Abigail Hart (10th).

The Red Eddies’ boys team also qualified as a result of their runner-up finish to the Brunswick Dragons (72-78). Cony was third with Mt. Blue, Lewiston and Mt. Ararat all earning an invitation to the state meet.

Brunswick’s Will Geoghegan captured the top individual spot with a winning time of 15:46.02. Jason Kaake of Morse and Mt. Blue’s Kelton Cullenberg finished second and third. Ironically, the top three matched the girls by duplicating their 2008 finish.

Cony’s Luke Fontaine, Brunswick’s Liam Cassidy, Bangor’s Sam Nisbett and Edward Little’s Sadam Abdi combined with the top three finishers to form a pack of seven runners breaking away from the rest of the pack until just after the one-mile mark. From there, Geoghegan and Cullenberg pulled to the front with only Kaake making a move to run with them.

“It was a pretty fast start considering the wind,” Geoghegan said. “I felt pretty good, but going out a little slower would have helped.”

Near the midway point, Geoghegan pressed forward and Cullenberg began to fall off the pace. That left just the Brunswick senior alone with a pesky Kaake pushing him, but at a fairly safe distance.

“Halfway through the race, Kaake was surging,” Geoghegan said. “When I went around corners, I could see him. He was definitely (pushing me).”

Cassidy finished fifth to grab some key points for the Dragons in their head-to-head battle with the Red Eddies. Sadam Abdi was the first Red Eddie to cross the finish line with teammate Omar Abdi on his heels for eighth and ninth place.

“Brunswick ran a really smart race,” Campbell said. “We had a couple of kids run a sub-par race and a couple of kids ran a great race. We’re a little disappointed, but we still have next week.”

Faisal Abdillahi was the top Lewiston runner. He finished in 10th place.

Old Town’s Dacie Manion won the Class B girls’ crown with John Bapst taking the team title. Erskine’s Sam Seekins was the boys’ winner for B with Caribou the team champion. Orono swept the Class C crowns with Searsport’s Faith Mackey and Mattanawcook’s Matt Guiod the individual winners.