WINTHROP – Even Lisbon’s toughest MVC competition had a hard time keeping up on Wednesday.

Jared Cloutier, Tyler Clark and Dan Suthers finished 1-2-3 and Lisbon placed its top six runners in the top eight places as the Greyhounds ran over Winthrop, Telstar, Madison and Hall Dale at Winthrop’s first home meet of the season.

“At this point of the season, we ran like we needed to run,” said Lisbon coach Hank Fuller. “We need to tighten up the pack as we get closer to states, and that’s what we were able to do.”

Cloutier’s race may have been the biggest of the day for Lisbon. Last weekend, even though he helped Lisbon take the crown at the Scarborough Invitational, Cloutier ran a less than ideal race.

“In bigger races I get all wound up,” said Cloutier. “That happened again on Saturday, so this race was all about calming down and running with rhythm.”

For the first half of the race, the entire Lisbon team stayed together, leading the race in a seven-person pack.

“At about a mile and a half or two miles, he picked it up,” said Clark, who finished in second place. “At that point, he normally does that. I am used to it and let him go.”

Cloutier finished in 17:03, while Clark came in at 17:38.

Suthers out-kicked Winthrop’s No. 1 runner, Dan Solton, by two seconds to complete the Lisbon trifecta at the top.

Following Solton to the line were Kaleb Boucher and Phil Morlock, both of Lisbon, and Nick Downing of Winthrop. The Greyhounds’ sixth runner, Aaron Cloutier (Jared’s younger brother), finished in eighth overall in a time of 18:43.

“Lisbon is one of the best teams in the state regardless of class,” said Winthrop coach Gabe Rivard, himself a former runner at York. “All year we have had four consistent runners, and today our fifth runner came up big and we broke 50 points, which is great. We also got two runners into Lisbon’s pack.”

Lisbon finished the meet with 17 points, while Winthrop was a distant second with 49. Madison (103), Hall-Dale (123) and Telstar (124) rounded out the top five.

Twenty-one flat…almost

With the girls running the race on Wednesday at the same time as the boys, Brianne Bailey of Telstar was able to get the push she needed and nearly broke 21 minutes on a brutal Winthrop course that tested runners on tar, grass, gravel and narrow, wooded trails.

“I like running with someone ahead of me,” said Bailey. “It helps to push me.”

Bailey finished in 21:04 and was easily the first girl to cross the line. Zoe Jennings of Hall-Dale crossed in 21:48 to take second place, while Nerissa Gross of Lisbon netted a third-place finish with a time of 23:16.

“I’m right where I want to be at this point,” said Bailey, who injured her ankle on one of the narrow portions of the trail Wednesday. “This is a longer distance than I ran in middle school last year, and it took some adjusting, but I am racing pretty well.”

Just two teams, Madison and Hall-Dale, had enough girls to score in the team competition, with Madison coming out on top 23-39.