BANGOR – Sports superstitions come in a variety of forms. Find a penny, you’re guaranteed a win. See a black cat cross your path on the way to a meet? Trouble awaits.

At least, that’s what people will have you believe.

Even if you don’t believe in all those popular superstitions, you’ve got to admit that Saturday’s pre-meet visitor meant something.

Just ask Eric Rudolph. He was one of the people who looked overhead before the Penobscot Valley Conference cross country championships. He was one of the people who saw it.

“I saw the eagle,” said Rudolph.

Rudolph, you may have guessed, runs for Ellsworth. The Ellsworth Eagles.

He saw the majestic bird glide back and forth, then gently float away just after the national anthem had been played.

“I think it was somebody telling us that it was time to go,” Rudolph said. “It was time to do something.”

He and his teammates did just that.

Ellsworth, which had lost three previous meetings to powerful Caribou this season, tucked four runners in the top 10 and posted a 35-48 win over the Vikings en route to the large-school title for Class A and B schools.

Brewer was third in the large-school meet with 81 while Hampden took fourth with 106 and Mount Desert Island scored 118 and finished fifth.

In the small-school competition (all teams race against each other, but runners from each side are separated according to class), Class C Sumner was downright dominant.

The Tigers of East Sullivan went 1-2-3-4-8 to score 18 points and knock off Piscataquis Community High of Guilford (75 points). Foxcroft was third with 99 and Schenck of East Millinocket scored 119. Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln scored 135 and took fifth.

Sumner’s top five: Alexander Brunton, Ryan O’Keefe, Mike Clay, Dustin Young, Greg Young and Derek Pinkham, finished fourth in the overall tally of PVC schools.

Ellsworth senior Steve DeWitt cruised to the individual win, touring the 2.9-mile Bangor Mental Health Institute course in 14 minutes, 50 seconds. He was 11 seconds off the course record of 14:39, set by Louie Luchini of Ellsworth in 1997.

Caribou’s Jeff Alden was second, 42 seconds back, and teammate Chris Blackstone took third in 15:45.

DeWitt’s brother Joey, an EHS sophomore who ran third for the Eagles and finished sixth overall, said Steve’s early pace took a toll on everyone.

“Steven took the whole field out fast and just burned everybody,” Joey DeWitt said. “I was dead at the one-mile mark and just kind of grinded my way in.”

Lucas Sitterly finished second for the Eagles and fourth overall, while Rudolph took seventh and Anthony Jones was 19th.

Ellsworth coach Andy Beardsley admitted that he, too, saw the eagle before the day’s racing started. … but that doesn’t mean he encouraged his team to pay any attention to it.

“I told the team I thought it was a hawk or a raven or a vulture,” Beardsley said with a laugh. “I said it might be an eagle. But they said it was a good sign, a good omen.”

So was this: After Caribou handed the Eagles a 40-point loss to start the season, Ellsworth has been slowly, steadily catching up. Three weeks ago Caribou won by four. Last week, the gap was just two. … and the teams will face each other the next two weekends in regional and state competition.

“I knew they trained a lot during the summer and we didn’t put that many miles on,” Joey DeWitt said.

“Our coach is really good and he just peaks us and we keep getting better and better. They’re just not gaining as much as we are.”