AUGUSTA – For the past two months, the state’s cross country coaches have said – in the form of a weekly poll – that the Mt. Blue of Farmington girls are the best around.

In fact, the coaches have been saying that pretty much every week since 1998, when the Cougars won the first of three state Class A titles.

On Saturday, the Sanford girls said something very different.

The Redskins took advantage of a vulnerable Mt. Blue squad that was battling sickness and injury, and won their first state championship.

The Redskins scored 50 points to top South Portland and Mt. Blue, which each scored 78. South Portland was the runner-up based on the performance of its sixth runner. Deering of Portland was fourth with 138 and Edward Little of Auburn took fifth with 156.

Brunswick senior Anya Davidson won the individual championship in the day’s fastest time over the 3.1-mile UM-Augusta course. She ran 19 minutes, 40 seconds.

The championship returned the title to Western Maine for the first time since 1996, when Westbrook annexed its fourth straight crown.

Despite Mt. Blue’s past success, Sanford coach Matt Ferry said he thought his young team – two juniors and five sophomores – was ready to return the title to Western Maine.

“I knew we’d have to run well. South Portland ran great in our region meet and Mt. Blue is just an awesome program and they have some very talented kids,” Ferry said.

“You play the numbers game all the time but it comes down to showing up and seeing how people run,” he said. “It looks like my kids ran pretty well, and now we have to wait and see what the numbers say.”

The numbers bore out Ferry’s initial assessment.

Mt. Blue coach Kelly Cullenberg’s squad entered the meet a bit under the weather, with two – including last year’s state champ Erin Archard – suffering from the flu.

“Technically, five of my seven girls have something going on,” Cullenberg said.

Still, Cullenberg expected her Cougars to perform better.

“I pretty much thought if everybody had the race that they’d been doing all season that we’d be all set,” Cullenberg said. “You never want to feel overconfident, certainly, and you’ve got to prepare the kids for anything. But certainly you can’t count on five out of seven having something wrong the day of states.” In Class B, Hampden junior Oriana Farley held off a game challenge from Ellsworth freshman Lacie Dow to win individual honors in 19:45, but Greely won its second straight team title with 68 points. EM champ Hampden was third with 102 while Camden Hills took fourth with 117 and Ellsworth was fifth with 121.

In Class C, Hillary Easter of Jay won the race in 21:02 and Wiscasset held off Eastern Maine’s best to win the state team title with 40 points. Sumner of East Sullivan scored 63 and Foxcroft Academy had 78. Jay was fourth with 80 and Madison rounded out the top five with 81.

And in Class D, Anna Willard of Telstar in Bethel took command of the race from the gun and cruised to a dominant win. Willard won by 2:13 in 19:48.

Elan of Poland earned its second straight title with 51 points while Washington Academy of East Machias was second with 88. Woodland had 95, Penobscot Valley of Howland scored 103 and Monmouth Academy finished fifth with 105.

In Class B, Hampden Academy’s formula for success all year has been a tightly packed bunch of athletes in support of front-runner Farley.

On Saturday, Greely provided a solution, tucking Mandy Bowden and Sam Bowden in the top 10 and getting all seven runners ahead of the Broncos fifth.

Up front, Farley rebounded from a third-place finish at the EM championship meet with her first state cross country title. She led a parade of freshmen: Dow, EM champ Heather Fogg of Medomak Valley in Waldoboro and Fryeburg Academy’s Stephanie Jette held down the next three spots.

The win was sweet for Farley, who left last week’s meet with something to prove.

“I was embarrassed, and I was disappointed, and I didn’t want to run like that again this week,” Farley said.

“I didn’t want to cross the line again and think I could have run faster, that I could have run better. That’s just the worst feeling.”

In Class C, coach Becky O’Keefe’s Sumner girls got a thirrd-place finish from Elizabeth Brunton, but Wiscasset countered with a 4-8 effort from Quincy Arey and Chelsea Waltz en route to the championship.

“Our goal was to go for Wiscasset, and hopefully get second. Stay ahead of Foxcroft,” O’Keefe said.

But from the start, O’Keefe said, it became obvious that one team stood out.

“[We] ran very well. [We] did what they needed to do against Foxcroft, and it was clear when we got out there that Wiscasset was very strong,” O’Keefe said.

Vanesssa Brunton (16th), Mary Ellen Carter (30th), Crystal Jacques (36th) and Nikki Young (37th) rounded out the scoring runners for the Tigers.

In Class D, Alicia Drost of Penobscot Valley was the top Eastern Maine finisher in second place and Kristy Albee of Washington Academy finished third to help the Raiders to second in the team chase.

Albee was backed by freshmen Daphne Nichols (sixth), Leila Alciere (32nd) and Sara Livingstone (47th) while junior Stefany Almendinger took 48th.

Woodland, which won the Downeast Athletic Conference by defeating the Raiders, were led by freshmen Jessica Murphy (17th) and Jenna Howard (20th).