BELFAST – Before he hopped on the bus that took him and his teammates to Saturday’s Eastern Maine Cross Country Championships, E.J. Hughes walked around Bangor High looking for the information that would put the Rams’ quest in perspective.

“I was looking around the halls,” Hughes said. “The last [trophy] I saw was 1986. Eastern Maine champs. And that’s all I saw.”

Before Hughes and his teammates head to Augusta for next week’s state meet, the search will be considerably shorter: The trophy they earned as Eastern Maine’s top Class A team will likely be displayed prominently.

“We were hoping to win,” coach Pattie Craig said after the Rams had annexed their crown with a 78-93 victory over Mount Ararat of Topsham.

“This is the first chance we’ve had to do this in a lot of years,” Craig said.

Senior Ben Allen led the Rams as he started slow, surged to the front, and wound up second behind Morse of Bath’s Aaron Norton, who toured the new 3.1-mile course at Troy Howard Middle School in 16 minutes, 40 seconds. Hughes was third while teammate Adam Goode finished ninth.

Cony of Augusta (104), Mt. Blue of Farmington (116) and Waterville (118) rounded out the field of EM entries in next week’s state championship meet at the University of Maine at Augusta. Runners who finished in the top 20 also earned state-meet berths.

The win was gratifying for Craig, who said that even though she thought the Rams could win, her team performed better than she’d hoped.

“I’m proud, not just because they’re good, but because they just have a really good attitude,” Craig said.

In Class B, the Caribou boys avenged a loss to Hampden in last week’s Penobscot Valley Conference championship meet by topping the Broncos 61-91. Ellsworth scored 93, Mount Desert Island had 115 and Erskine Academy of South China tallied 161 to take the final state meet berth.

Ellsworth junior Steve DeWitt turned in the day’s fastest time to win the individual Class B crown: 16:18.

In Class C, the Orono boys got a 1-2 finish from Cameron Millard and Craig Jones and a seventh from Adam Jones but perennial “C” power Sumner of East Sullivan earned the team title: Orono only has three boys on its roster and can’t post a team score. Millard clocked a 17:19.

Sumner tucked five runners in the top 13 to score 34 points and earn one of three state-meet bids up for grabs in the division. Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln (63) and George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill (83) grabbed the other two spots.

And in Class D, Valley of Bingham topped Machias 49-70 to win the team championship while Lee Academy (83) and Schenck of East Millinocket (141) also advanced.

Limestone senior Robbie Gomez ran 17:04 to win the individual crown.

Gomez said he enjoyed the new Belfast course, but he did find the blustery conditions a bit of a problem … sometimes.

“There were times I just wanted to dig a hole and crawl in it because the wind was hitting at you,” Gomez said. “But a lot of times the wind was behind you and you felt like you could float.”

Caribou bounced back from a sub-par effort in last week’s league meet to post an impressive win.

Coach Roy Alden said the Vikings dedicated their race to a teacher, Bob Sprague, and his wife, Karen, who has cancer.

And he said that despite boarding a bus at 4 a.m., the Vikes were readyto compete when they got to Belfast.

“[Last week] they didn’t have the focus they needed to, and kids are kids,” Alden said. “Kids do that sometimes. They probably needed that [loss] to refocus them and remotivate them.”

HS Cross Country

STATE QUALIFERS

Eastern Maine Girls

Class A: 1. Mt. Blue, 2. Cony, 3. Waterville, 4. Brewer

Class B: 1. Hampden Academy, 2. Old Town, 3., Presque Isle, 4. Ellsworth, 5. Camden Hills

Class C: 1. Bucksport, 2. George Stevens Academy, 3. Washington Academy

Class D: 1. Shead, 2. Machias, 3. Limestone

Eastern Maine Boys

Class A: 1. Bangor, 2. Cony, 3. Mt. Blue, 4. Waterville

Class B: 1. Caribou, 2. Hampden Academy, 3. Ellsworth, 4. Mount Desert Island, 5. Erskine Academy

Class C: 1. Sumner, 2. Mattanawcook Academy, 3. George Stevens Academy

Class D: 1. Valley, 2. Machias, 3. Lee, 4. Schenck