Friday’s forecast of rain wreaked havoc with the weekend’s field hockey and soccer playoff and football schedules, but there had been no announcements as of Thursday night regarding the cross country regional championships being held Saturday at Twin Brook in Cumberland and Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast.

The regionals have been victimized by Mother Nature in the past, as recently as 2009, when rain and cold temperatures forced the Maine Principals’ Association to postpone both races for a week and move the state meet back one week.

Officials were able to do that because of an open week in the schedule between the state and New England championships. That is also the case this year, as New Englands, which will be hosted by Twin Brook, are scheduled for Nov. 10.

If the starter’s guns do go off Saturday, the action will start with the Class A boys race (10 a.m. in Cumberland and 11 a.m. in Belfast). The girls’ races in all three classes will follow 35 minutes after the start of the boys’.

The Class B boys begin at 12:10 p.m. in Belfast and 12:30 p.m. in Cumberland. Class C boys concludes the day at 1:20 p.m. in Belfast, 2:30 p.m. in Cumberland.

Eastern Class A

In Eastern A, the Lewiston boys are favored to win their first regional title since 2008. That was also the last time the Blue Devils won the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championship before last week’s dominating performance at Cony High School.

Mohamed Barre, Mohamed Awil, Isaiah Harris and Mohamed Mohamed all posted top-seven finishes for the Devils last Saturday and they cruised to a 35-point win over Mt. Blue.

The Cougars will try to close the gap this Saturday with KVAC individual champion Justin Tracy, Josh Horne, Sully Jackson and Dan Lesko looking to match Lewiston’s quartet. Defending champion Bangor also hopes to challenge.

Defending champions are favored to retain their individual and team crowns on the girls’ side. Mt. Ararat edged Brunswick by four points for the KVAC title and is in pursuit of a fourth consecutive regional title. Hampden and Mt. Blue will join Brunswick in trying to prevent that. Lawrence’s Erzsebet Nagy is the defending individual champion and also coming off a win at KVACs.

The top 30 indivual finishers in each class qualify for states, which will be held in Belfast.

Western Class C

While the Class A meets are essentially a sequel to the previous week’s conference championships, Class C West features a clash of two different conferences and, thus, offers a few more unknowns.

Telstar’s Josef Holt-Andrews and Merriconeag Waldorf’s Jack Pierce will be battling to inherit the torch from three-time state champion Matt McClintock of Madison as the class’s most dominant runner.

Holt-Andrews was the top Maine runner at the Festival of Champions and won his first Mountain Valley Conference title last week by over a minute. Pierce finished second behind Class B favorite Silas Eastman at the Western Maine Conference championships.

MVC champion Hall-Dale and defending regional champion North Yarmouth Academy lead what could be a large field of contenders for the team title. Boothbay, Merriconeag, Telstar, Winthrop and Lisbon could also find a spot on the podium.

The girls’ race has sequel potential, as Dirigo’s Natalie Bolduc and Sophia Thayer of Boothbay, who finished within one second of each other for second and third place, respectively, at last year’s regionals, figure to vie for the top spot Saturday. Thayer edged Bolduc for the MVC title last week. But NYA’s Hannah Austin could make the front-running duo a trio.

Like their leaders, Dirigo and Boothbay should be contenders for team bragging rights, but again, the WMC will bring some viable contenders in Waynflete and defending regional champion Merriconeag.

Western Class B

Class B features two-time defending champion Silas Eastman of Fryeburg Academy as the overwhelming favorite. Gray-New Gloucester’s Will Shafer is the top local competitor. Falmouth is also favored to defend its team title, with Cape Elizabeth its most likely pursuer.

The Falmouth girls are favored to make it a sweep of the team titles unless Greely, Freeport and/or Yarmouth can pull off the upset.

With Maranacook three-time state champion Abby Mace’s run of dominance over, it opens the door for a new champion. Greely boasts two favorites, WMC champion Kirstin Sandreuter and runner-up Eva Bates. Poland’s Kristina Smith and Leavitt’s Maddie Wiegman could reach the podium.

rwhitehouse@sunjournal.com

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