That is to say that Doorow hasn’t really been tested, winning every race he’s entered (including the Class A state championship and the Festival of Champions race in Belfast) by at least 13 seconds.

At Saturday’s New England Championship in Thetford, Vermont, that figures to change.

“When we looked at the beginning of the season, and when he started really winning by a lot, we really looked at the New Englands as the goal; not even the state meet,” Lewiston head coach Kim Wettlaufer said of Doorow. “The state meet obviously he wanted to win, because he hadn’t won one yet, but we’ve really been gearing his training towards this.”

Doorow won’t necessarily be the favorite to win the New England boys’ title, as the competition from the other five New England states will be much closer than what the blazing fast Blue Devil has dealt with thus far this fall. That doesn’t mean Doorow doesn’t want to keep his unbeaten autumn going.

“Right now I’m thinking about winning,” Doorow said. “If I feel it, I’m just going to go for it and win.”

Doorow said his goal is at least a top five, a possible finish that Wettlaufer echoed. The Lewiston coach estimates that Doorow’s top competition will likely by Rhode Island state champion David Principe, from LaSalle Academy in Providence. Principe ran a 15:09 to take his state title, while Doorow ran a 16:17 to capture the Class A state title. His season best was a 15:40 at the Northern regionals.

“It’s going to be exciting to have someone to push him,” Wettlaufer said. “You want to have somebody with you through two-and-a-half miles, and then see what happens.”

Wettlaufer said he’s heard that Thetford Academy’s course is “hilly, hilly, hilly” and guesses that it will be most similar to the Cony High School course that hosted the KVAC championship this season. Doorow broke that course’s record in winning the KVAC title.

Where he runs doesn’t matter much, however, according to Doorow.

“I don’t care how hard it is, the course, but it’s just who I’m running with,” he said.

Doorow hopes to running at the front of the pack when the race reaches its final stretch. That’s a spot Doorow was far from when he competed in his first New England Championship last year, when he finished 104th.

“Last year I was not 100 percent,” Doorow said. “There was a lot of people there. I was trying to go out, but they pushed me. This year I’m trying to go out and stay with those guys, and see what I can do.”

“I’ll go out on a limb and say he’s going to finish a lot higher than that this year,” said Wettlaufer, who noted that Doorow has — “knock on wood” — stayed relatively healthy this year and is a “whole different runner” than he was a year ago.

Doorow said last year’s race was an eye-opener for him, both the competition he faced and the commitment it takes to stay with that competition. He’s grown a lot in 12 months, he said.

“I think I’m going to be ready for it,” Doorow said. “And I’m going to try my best.”

Harriman headed to Vermont, too

Doorow won’t be the only local runner making the trip to Vermont for the New England Championship. Lisbon’s Nick Harriman also qualified with his finish in the Class C state championship. Harriman was the 23rd fastest boys’ finisher across all three classes, with the top 25 qualifying for New Englands.

Harriman said after the state championship that he was a little disappointed in his time while finishing third in Class C. He ran a 17:22.28, which was slower than his winning times at both the Southern Maine regionals and the MVC championships.

“This is really what I was (aspiring) for,” Harriman said. “I was really looking forward to it, and honestly at the end of the state meet I didn’t think that I had qualified. And I was bummed out by that.”

This will be Harriman’s first trip to the New England Championship. He was only the 45th fastest boy at last year’s state championships and 58th the year before.

Saturday will mark a rare time for Harriman and Doorow to run in the same cross country race, but not for them to run against — or with — each other. Harriman trains with Lewiston during the indoor track season, as Lisbon does not field a team during the winter.

“It’s really cool seeing him improve so much throughout the last three years,” Hariman said of Doorow. “It’s going to be even better to see him and be able to run with him in the same race. I’ve yet to be able to do that.

“I think that, really, he’s going to do an awesome job there.”

wkramlich@sunjournal.com

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