When cross country runners see October on their calendar, they all circle the last three Saturdays of the month.

This year, Oct. 15, 22 and 29 represent the conference, regional and state championship meets.

Big events? You bet.

For sheer size, scope and mass of humanity, however, there’s no Saturday bigger than the one that starts the month of pumpkins, candy and home winterization.

Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast will roll out the red carpet to more than 60 schools from New England and Canada for the annual Festival of Champions.

“Who’s Who of Youth Distance Running” would be equally suitable billing. As of Thursday, 766 boys and 356 girls — 1,112 runners in all — were registered.

No fewer that nine local schools are scheduled to compete: Edward Little, Lewiston, Lisbon, Monmouth, Mt. Blue, Oak Hill, Oxford Hills, Telstar and Winthrop.

Reigning champions Abbey Leonardi of Kennebunk and Matt McClintock of Madison are posied to defend their titles.

Maine cross country hosts three separate meets, so Saturday’s showcase is the only opportunity for many of the state’s top runners to race against each other.

It’s also the same course that will host the Eastern Maine championships in three weeks. That means the event doubles as a sneak peek for the four local entries from Eastern Class A.

The festival is separated into three divisions for each gender. In addition to the championship grouping, there are brackets for unseeded and freshman runners.

Addie Cullenberg (15th) and Louisa Stancioff (26th) of Mt. Blue are the top tri-county seeds in the girls’ main event.

Lisbon’s Meagan Thomas is ranked No. 43 in the field.

Three local boys — Josef Holt-Andrews of Telstar (11th) and the Edward Little tandem of Luc Bourget (28th) and Justin LeClair (34th) — are ranked in the top 50. Justin Tracy of Mt. Blue is 51st.

Jordan and Andrew Balsamo of Lewiston are rated fifth and eighth, respectively, in the unseeded boys’ pack. Taylor True, also representing the Blue Devils, is fifth on the girls’ side, with J’Rae Mendall of Oak Hill 14th.

Top entered local freshman runners are Katherine Gunther of Mt. Blue and Ben Allen of Winthrop.

In addition to the 56 Maine schools, two teams each will converge from Rhode Island and Nova Scotia. Another is traveling from Vermont.

The 5,000-meter races begin at 11:20 a.m. and continue through the day, with awards at 3:30 p.m.

Knights set pace

Poland qualified only two girls for the 2010 Class B championship meet.

Both of them — multi-time state track and field champion Kendra Lobley and Julia Kreuger — graduated in June.

It doesn’t sound like a recipe for keeping a program alive and kicking, but the new-look Knights have reinvented themselves. And judging from the age and promise of the competitors, the best is yet to come.

Poland placed runners in the first, fourth and fifth positions in its last race at Wells.

All three were freshmen.

Kristina Smith continued her strong rookie season by winning the event. Whisper Waite and Hannah Belanger weren’t far off the pace in rounding out the top five.

Devils dominate

Lewiston’s girls have been overshadowed at times this season by the school’s boys’ team.

But the Blue Devil ladies stole all the headlines in a triangular meet with KVAC rivals Edward Little and Oxford Hills. Lewiston swept the top four spots in the race.

Nicole Court-Menendez, Faith Shaw, Mana Abdi and True provided the sea of blue at the front of the field.

Not to be outdone, the Devils picked up a close victory over the Red Eddies, 29-34, in the boys’ run. Kevin Lavertu and Mohamed Awil went one-two for Lewiston, separated by only two seconds. EL’s Leclair (third) and Bourget (fourth) gave chase.

Holding their own

In a battle of traditional southern and western powers, Mt. Blue didn’t let Mt. Ararat and Brunswick run and hide in a KVAC meet at Topsham.

The Cougars finished third in both races, but they could see the leaders. Mt. Ararat (37) and Brunswick (47) narrowly edged Mt. Blue (48) on the girls’ side. Brunswick topped the Mt. Ararat boys by a thin 34-36 margin, followed by Mt. Blue with 60.

Cullenberg collected second place and Stancioff finished fifth among the girls. Justin Tracy (fourth) and Sully Jackson (fifth) led the effort for the Cougar boys.

Finishing kick

— Will Shafer of Gray-New Gloucester took second place with a time of 19:10 in a four-team meet at Pratt’s Brook Park in Yarmouth.

— Leavitt’s Lucy Knowlton was fifth out of 85 female runners in an eight-team KVAC competition at Cony.

koakes@sunjournal.com

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