Runners take to hills for cross country titles

Hundreds of high school runners will invade 5-kilometer courses in Belfast and Cumberland today for regional cross country championships.

The Eastern Maine meet will be held on the trails behind Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast, the same site that will be used for the state championships next weekend.

The Western Maine crowns will be decided at Twin Brook Recreation Center.

The first race of the day will be Class B boys at 11 a.m., followed by girls (11:35), C boys (12:05 p.m.), girls (12:40), D boys (1:15), girls (1:50), and winding up with A boys (2:25) and girls (3:05).

As usual in championship meets in cross country, anything can happen. In classes A and B, there are the best from the Penobscot Valley Conference and Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference, while in C and D the PVC and Downeast Athletic Conference will collide.

In the girls meet, the John Bapst Crusaders of Bangor have been consistently ranked among the top teams in the state all season. The Class B Crusaders, who were ranked No. 2 in the recent MTCCA poll, will face challenges from No. 9 Maranacook, No. 10 Old Town, defending state champ Hampden and defending EM champ Ellsworth.

The only team ahead of JB is Mount Ararat of Topsham, and the Eagles are far and away the favorites in Class A. Mt. Blue of Farmington has been running well the past couple of weeks, and they moved up to No. 5 in the recent polls.

PVC small-school champ Lee Academy looks strong in Class D, while Sumner of East Sullivan, Foxcroft Academy and George Stevens of Blue Hill, all Class C teams, fared well in last week’s conference championship meet.

On the boys side, there’s not really a far-and-away favorite in any class.

Class A looks like the most bunched of the four. Morse of Bath, two-time defending champion Mt. Blue, and Brewer should all be in the hunt along with Mount Ararat.

John Bapst is the only PVC team in the top 10 (No. 9) in Class B, as they won PVCs last weekend. However, Caribou, Ellsworth, Hampden, and Camden Hills will all be in the mix.

Sumner has always had a strong team in Class C, but Central of Corinth captured the small-school PVC crown last week and should be considered the favorite. Washington Academy will provide a challenge for the Red Devils.

Class D is wide-open as usual. Madawaska won its first regional title a year ago, and only graduated one finisher from that meet. Fort Fairfield, Lee, and Machias have always had strong teams.