Harris and Osman were running alongside one other as they completed the first lap of the two-lap course at Roberts Farm in Norway on Friday afternoon. When they came around a second time, Doorow broke away to win event in a time of 18:46. Harris was two seconds behind him, holding off a late-charging Harrison Knowlton of Leavitt.

“The fist mile, I was feeling really good,” Doorow said. “The second mile, I was a little bit (tired), but I didn’t give up.”

Harris used the down slope of a hill to pass Knowlton to secure second place after Doorow and Knowlton passed him going up one of the hills on the course.

“The downhills is where I make up ground,” Harris said. “I caught up to them and passed Harrison right at the end. I didn’t have enough to pass Osman.”

Knowlton gave it all to try to hold off Harris.

“Isaiah and Osman are so strong down the downhills,” said Knowlton, who finished with a time of 18:49. “I tried to push it on the second mile up the hill, but they caught me and beat me by a little bit.”

Rounding out the top five were Abduljabar Farah of Lewiston and Nathaniel McNutt of Oxford Hills.

The Blue Devils won the team event with 23 points, followed by Oxford Hills (46) and Leavitt (65). Spruce Mountain also competed, but didn’t have enough runners to register a team score.

“They have been working really well together in practice,” Lewiston co-coach Rebecca Duggan said of Doorow and Harris. “They have different strengths and today Osman pulled it off in front of Isaiah.”

Lewiston also took home the girls’ team event with 20 points, with six girls in the top ten. The Devils’ top three runners, Courtney Allen, Nicole Footer and Kyala Allen, finished third, fourth and fifth respectively.

The girls’ team has been running as a pack recently.

“We are trying to get five, six, seven up there, knowing they all run together in practice, they work hard together and they should be racing together,” Duggan said. “They were able to keep moving up and Hamido (Hassan) was our (fourth) runner (to finish) and she kind of closed that gap.”

Oxford Hills was the only other team with enough runners to score with 43 points.

The individual race saw Julia Labbe of Leavitt run away with the race with a time of 25:04. Julia Dillon of Oxford Hills finished in second, 39 seconds off the winning pace.

“Julia raced mentally smart today,” Leavitt coach Dustin Williamson said. “Being out in front is not an easy thing to do. She was mostly out in front for the entire 5k.” 

Oxford Hills coach Kristin Dacko likes to share quotes with the team before a meet. Friday, she shared: “The biggest mistake an athlete can make is to be afraid of making one.”

Dillon used the L. Ron Hubbard quote for motivation.

“We got a new coach this year, she has been fantastic and she works really well with us,” Dillon said of Dacko.

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