Instead, Boothbay, paced by Sophia Thayer breaking her own course record, put itself back in the front-runner’s position with a two-point victory over Lisbon.

The Boothbay boys made it a sweep, cruising to a 44-point victory over runner-up Edward Little.

Thayer finished the 5K in 20:43, 15 seconds off her mark set last year and a comfortable 56 seconds ahead of runner-up and teammate Hannah Morley.

Even though the Greyhounds (48 points) placed five in the top 15 — Bree Sautter, who was fifth overall, Kaylin Le (sixth), Caitlyn Bundy (10th), Adrianna White (12th) and Allie Lycette (15th) — it wasn’t enough top make up for Thayer-Morley combo once Boothbay’s fifth runner, Shaw Pinkham, crossed the line in 18th.

“Our strategy was to stay with the second and third runner for Boothbay and try to get past them at the end if we could,” Sautter said. “We got one of them.”

“We’ve broken up their two and three almost every race this year,” Lisbon coach Hank Fuller said. “Our pack has been stronger than theirs. Today, their fourth and fifth were a little bit stronger than in the past, and that was the two-point difference. Come MVCs, you can flip a coin between Boothbay, Lisbon and Monmouth.”

Boothbay coach Lauren Forgues was happy to see all of her team meet or exceed expectations.

“We ran Festival of Champions last week, which obviously is flat and fast, and we all PR’d there,” she said. “I obviously didn’t expect them to beat those times here just because this course is a little bit harder, but (the times) are exactly what I was expecting.”

Madison finished third with 64 points, edging out St. Dom’s by one point, but Saints coach Keith Weatherbie was pleased with how his team is shaping up heading into the conference meet, which is Oct. 19 in Augusta.

“The girls did a nice job,” Weatherbie said. “We keep getting better every week. It’s the last regular-season meet and we’re just looking for everyone to keep on improving and they are.”

Aly LeBlanc and Bronte Elias of Madison were third and fourth, respectively. Ellen Tuttle of St. Dom’s placed eighth.

Boothbay produced five of the top nine finishers in the boys’ race to tally just 21 points and emerge victorious from the eight-team field, which was the largest that Lisbon has ever hosted at Beaver Park.

Lisbon’s Nicholas Harriman led for much of the race but was passed in the final quarter mile by eventual winner Benn Scully (17:46) and runner-up Joey Paolio (17:49). Scully said he kept Harriman in his sights because he was unfamiliar with the course.

“I honestly didn’t know where to go. We got here kind of late so I was just hoping he would show me where to go,” said Scully, a senior.

Harriman finished third, five seconds behind Scully and two behind Paolio.

“I think I should have pushed a little bit harder during the middle of the race to try and stay ahead of them. I guess I just tried to do it too quickly and didn’t do it strategically,” Harriman said. “I can’t really complain about finishing third.”

Robert Campbell, Jack Hasch and Matt Burnham also placed in the top nine for the Seahawks. Edward Little’s Izaac White and Sheldon Bang were sixth and seventh, respectively. Jacob Bazinet (14th), Jacob Gamache (19th) and Spencer Dunn (24th) helped the Red Eddies slip by Lisbon by just one point (65-66).

“We ran here earlier in the year and we wanted to see how far they had come,” said EL coach Mike Nyberg, whose team also runs its conference meet, the KVACs, on Oct. 19. “This is what was expected. We’re pretty happy with the way things turned out. This was very good preparation because normally we don’t meet with these (MVC) teams. This was a unique opportunity for us.”

Lisbon’s Jeff Willey (eight) and Jordan Cole (10th) rounded out the top 10.

rwhitehouse@sunjournal.com

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