BANGOR – When an energetic youngster bolted away from the pack in the early going of Wednesday’s Walter Hunt Memorial 3K, Louie and Joey Luchini did what good runners always do when things like that happen.

They ignored him.

Runners have a word for guys like that, after all. They’re called “rabbits.” And they rarely pose a real threat.

But when another runner – a tall, lean guy dressed in black – surged to the front and began to push the pace shortly after that, Ellsworth’s Luchini brothers did something different.

They perked up and recognized him as a serious contender.

Even if they didn’t know his name (Patrick Lencioni, a 35-year-old from Ann Arbor, Mich., in case you’re curious).

“I saw him take the lead, and I didn’t know [how good he was],” Joey Luchini said. “Then we let him get quite a bit of a lead, and we were like, ‘We’d better go get him.'”

The trio reeled off a 4-minute, 23-second first mile and battled down Bangor’s Main Street hill before Louie Luchini, a Stanford University standout, kicked away to the win. He clocked a speedy 8:29 over the 1.8-mile distance.

Lencioni was second in 8:31 while 2000 champ Joey Luchini, who runs at the University of Maine, took third in 8:44. Former Hampden Academy standout Brent Leighton took fourth (8:58) while Ellsworth High track coach Andy Beardsley was fifth in 9:01.

In the women’s race, Orrington’s Lara Rand outran a talented field of youngsters en route to a win in 10:23.

UM-Farmington standout Kate McGuire was second in 10:42 while Hampden Academy’s Oriana Farley took third in 10:47. Kathryn Laverdiere, a recent graduate of Old Town High, was fourth in 10:58 and Erin Semba of Bangor was fifth in 10:59.

In all 448 runners finished the 1.8-mile race.

Rand said the women’s field, which contained most of the Penobscot Valley Conference’s top distance runners, was impressive.

As a result, she trailed in the early going.

“I chased after ’em all the way down the hill, until about the head of the [Joshua Chamberlain] bridge,” Rand said.

Rand reeled in Farley going across the bridge and posted a comfortable win.

McGuire said her friend Andy Goupee, the Sugarloaf Marathon champ and Wednesday’s sixth-place finisher, told her she might consider running with Rand.

She disagreed.

“I watched her go and I stayed back because I knew I can’t run with her. She’s amazing,” said McGuire, who ran for Rand’s husband Glendon on the Brewer High cross country team.

“But I could see her the whole time. That was [my plan]. Just watch her and stay away from her,” McGuire said with a laugh. “I was surprised that I hung in as long as I did.”

Lencioni ran collegiately at Michigan Tech and was in town to visit his wife’s parents in Searsport. He said he follows college track closely and was familiar with Louie Luchini’s accomplishments at Stanford.

What the Luchinis didn’t know: Lencioni is pretty good, too. He ran a 4:16 mile in a workout last week and has a 2-hour, 24-minute marathon on his resume.

“Everyone was kind of bunched, and the pace wasn’t all that fast,” Lencioni said. “I thought I could take this out and really string [the field] out.

“And I knew once they saw me, they’d either say, ‘Well, that guy’s just a rabbit, too,’ or ‘He’s legit.’

“We went through the mile in 4:20, and I figured they figured I was legit by the time I got there,” he said.

Louie Luchini posted the win despite recently returning to running after sitting out the spring track season with tendinitis in his ankle.

“Eventually I had to get a cortisone shot in it, took some more time off, and now I’m training again,” said Louie Luchini, who said he’s been averaging 30-35 miles a week for the three weeks he has been back running.

Normally he would be running between 60 and 80, he said.

TOP FINISHERS

Men

1. Louie Luchini 8:29

2. Patrick Lencioni 8:31

3. Joey Luchini 8:44

4. Brent Leighton 8:58

5. Andrew Beardsley 9:01

6. Andy Goupee 9:03

7. Joe Dana 9:06

8. Phil LeBreton 9:10

9. Tim Wakeland 9:14

10. Justin Bates 9:17

Women

1. Lara Rand 10:23

2. Kate McGuire 10:42

3. Oriana Farley 10:47

4. Kathryn Laverdiere 10:58

5. Erin Semba 10:59

6. Cassie Hintz 10:59

7. Heather Jovanelli 11:11

8. Abby Weissman 11:17

9. Heather Clark 11:19

10. Amina Oumesrour 11:21