BELFAST — Henri McCourt of Mt. Blue took first place in the freshman race at the Festival of Champions meet at Belfast on Saturday. McCourt toured the 3.1-mile course in a personal best of 17:59 helping to lead the Cougars to a 16th place finish out of 55 scoring schools in the meet.

The Festival of Champions involves three races for both boys and girls (freshman, seeded, and unseeded) with the results of all three races being combined to tally team scores.

Cyrus Evans lead the way for Mt. Blue in the seeded boys race placing 8th overall in a personal best time of 16:33, tying for the 7th best time ever run by a Mt. Blue runner on this course, which the team has been racing on since 2000. Teammate Alex Hardy crossed the line in exactly 19 minutes, also a personal best.

Other top finishers for Mt. Blue included Eli Hoeft (14th in the freshman race) and Daniel Dalton (15th in the unseeded race). Both boys ran personal best times.

On the girls side, the team placed 10th out of 49 scoring schools. Nora McCourt’s 11th place finish was the top overall result for the Cougars, with teammate Cassie Hardy adding a 22nd place finish. Both girls ran personal best times.

In the seeded race, Emma Charles placed 24th overall in a season best time of 20:21. Teammate Bridget Reusch returned to action from an injury and ran 21:40, both a season best and her best ever on the Belfast course. In the unseeded girls race, Abbie Cramer finished 26th overall in a season best time.

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