HAMPDEN – Sarah and Matt Dingle crossed the finish line of the Souadabscook Stream Race Saturday afternoon with Matt singing his wife’s praises.

“You did it, girl. You did it,” he repeated.

The couple turned their canoe to the shoreline and Matt hopped out, pulled the canoe closer in, and leaned over and gave his wife a kiss.

The Dingles, although they didn’t know it at the time, had the best run of the day down the Souadabscook, covering the eight-mile course in 1 hour, 1 minute, 17 seconds.

“That’s the best we’ve ever run it,” Sarah said.

The Dingles live in Newburgh. It should come as no surprise that they are good on the water together. That’s where they met.

“We met at the St. George [race] seven years ago,” Sarah said.

Saturday’s conditions were just short of ideal. Though most paddlers said they would have enjoyed a little more water, the rain predicted to fall never materialized and temperatures were in the 50s.

The lower water level made the course a bit more technical than normal.

“We ran it pretty dry. Pretty dry and fast. For the low water level, we had a good run,” Matt Dingle said.

The second-fastest canoe of the day belonged to Sarah Dingle’s brother Rick O’Donald of Newburgh and Paul Brown of Swanville. The pair finished in a time of 1:03:04.

O’Donald, who likes to laugh it up, jokingly complained that his sister left him high and dry.

“Sarah started paddling with me in ’91, I think. She’d never paddled before. She met Matt paddling. She threw me out of the boat and took him. I feel very slighted,” he laughed. “She just beat us today, so I guess it worked out all right.”

Matt Dingle said the couples’ success Saturday was in large part due to his wife.

“It’s a long boat to get through a technical course. It takes a great bowperson, or woman,” he laughed, “to set it up right. A lot’s on Sarah’s shoulders in terms of putting the boat where it needs to be.”

Paul Cole of Groveland, Mass., finished first among those paddling solo in canoes in 1:06:53.

H.I. Hasey of Bangor, in a kayak, was second overall in 1:02:16.

At Emerson Mill, a drop legendary for spilling paddlers, Hasey led the first group of boats through the drop. When he came through it without incident, he let out a whoop that brought laughter to onlookers on the bridge overlooking the stream.

“That was because I didn’t hit anything,” Hasey said.

But Hasey didn’t stay dry. He flipped his kayak while attempting to get out of it at the finish.

Bucksport’s Mark Bamford remembered a Souadabscook race of three years ago when he and a group of short kayak racers had a rough day. Just one of the racers didn’t take a bath in the race and only two finished.

Saturday’s race was much better.

“I came close [to dumping] once. I almost went through Crawford’s backwards. That was a little tense. I hit a few rocks but didn’t do too much damage,” Bamford said.