AUGUSTA — The Mountain Valley Conference cross country championship has been a painful venture for Alyse Carney the last couple of years.

But thanks to a gutty effort by the senior and some textbook pack running by her teammates, Carney and St. Dom’s have a fine elixir in their first Mountain Valley Conference cross country championship.

Carney led five Saints to score in the top 11, and every one of them proved critical in holding off Winthrop, by three points, at the University of Maine at Augusta.

The boys’ meet was nearly as close, as Boothbay bested Monmouth by four points to retain its conference title.

Prior to the 2009 meet, Carney sprained her ankle walking the UMA course and finished eighth. She went into this year’s meet battling tendinitis in her hip.

“I felt it. It was worth running through it,” she said. “I just kept thinking about that trophy that we just got.”

“Alyse has been our top runner for the last two years,” said St. Dom’s coach Keith Weatherbie. “She ran in a lot of pain today, but the doctor said she could run and it wouldn’t get any worse. She did a great job.”

Carney finished 11th overall (fifth among scorers) in 24:59. Nearly 90 seconds later, a wave of Saints came in, led by Carolyn Joseph and Hannah Tyce (seventh and eighth) then freshmen Callie Greco (ninth) and Lenna Soifer (11th).

“We had that pack of girls that came in there together. That was the key to the race,” Weatherbie said.

Senior Anna Doyle (22:09) led Winthrop with a strong second-place finish to Boothbay freshman Sophia Thayer (21:23).

“I tried to stay with her because I know she’s a really strong athlete and I wanted to see what I could do,” Doyle said. “I kept with her for a while, then on the long, grassy hill (about two-thirds through the course), she just powered up it and I lost it and I couldn’t catch back up. It was a good race. I’m happy with it.”

Runners dealt with wet and muddy course conditions and occasional strong wind gusts.

“It’s definitely hard when your spikes are, like, 20 pounds full of water,” Doyle said. “I didn’t really think about it. I just charged through it.”

St. Dom’s (41 points), Winthrop (44), Monmouth (61) and Lisbon (66) move on to the regionals next week at Twin Brook in Cumberland.

Lisbon’s Meagan Thomas (22:22), Monmouth’s Tiffany Pease (23:00) and Morgan Lee (23:01) of Telstar rounded out the top five individuals.

The Monmouth boys posed a strong challenge to Boothbay thanks to Pat McInnis (18:11), Kevin Desmond (18:20) and Matt McInnis (18:40), who placed fourth, fifth and seventh, respectively, plus Tyler Horsford and Steward Buzzell, who placed 16th and 17th.

“Boothbay stepped it up big time since the last time we meeted, but I think all of my boys had season’s best so far,” Monmouth coach Tom Menendez said. “We’ve just got to go back and work a little harder.”

Boothbay’s Chase Brown (16:22) out-kicked Matt McClintock of Madison by 10 seconds to flip-flop last year’s top two. Telstar freshman Joseph Holt-Andrews finished third in 17:33 to lead the Rebels to third in the team standings.

“I just tried to stick with Chase and Matt for as long as I could, then when they got away a little bit, I just tried to finish strong,” Holt-Andrews said.

Nate Schwehm of Boothbay and Pat McInnis completed the top five individuals, while Lisbon and Winthrop were fourth and fifth in team totals.

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