BELFAST – The Hampden Academy Broncos have been literally running together this cross country season and it helped give them an Eastern Maine Class B title at the Troy Howard Middle School 3.1-mile course Saturday.

Hampden squeaked past runner-up Ellsworth 77-79 and the Eagles were awarded second as their sixth runner (Lucas Carriere) finished ahead of John Bapst of Bangor’s sixth man (Hunter Umphrey).

Caribou was fourth with 119 points, while Camden Hills (121), Belfast (128) and Old Town (147) rounded out the seven state-meet qualifiers on a cold, breezy day at Troy Howard Middle School.

Paving the way for HA was Ben Bouchard, who finished ninth in 17 minutes, 21 seconds, while Chris Peverada (17:34), Danny McLean (17:37) and Mike Brown (17:38) went 13-14-15 and Evan Farley finished 26th (18:03) to round out the scorers.

Longtime Broncos coach Dick Balentine liked his team’s chances going into a wide-open Class B meet.

“We thought Class B East was wide-open,” he said. “We’ve had a pretty good pack all year and the boys have worked hard, and they all came through and had a great race. The pack did it for us.”

It sure did, as the Broncs wound up with an impressive 42-second pack time – the difference between their first- and fifth-place runners, However, in close meets, the 6-7 runners also have to come through, and Craig Harrison (18:41) and Simon Hanson (18:42) both finished ahead of Ellsworth’s and Bapst’s sixth.

“They stepped up, and it wasn’t just our top five,” Balentine said. “They deserve it. I believe it was our best pack time of the year.”

Levi Miller of Belfast won the individual title in 16:12.

In Class C, the Central of Corinth boys tucked all five of their scorers in the top 20 to edge defending champ Sumner of East Sullivan 57-86. Fort Kent finished with 89 and Orono 90, rounding out the state-meet qualifiers.

Leading the way for the Red Devils was sophomore Thomas Lamarche who finished (18:08) and senior Michael Julian in 11th (18:24).

“This team has run together all year, and they are just a great group of kids,” said Central coach John White. “We weren’t sure about Washington Academy [coming into the meet]. Last year these kids were fifth so they’ve come a long way.”

Lexi Wakeling or Orono finished first in Class C in 17:44.

In Class D, last year Madawaska hadn’t even been to a state meet. Now, they’ve won two straight EM titles, led by the 1-4-5 punch of Kevin Morin (17:54), Kevin Daigle (18:18.7) and Allen Campbell (19:04.6).

The Owls edged Lee Academy 38-40 while Schenck of East Millinocket also heads to states.

“Every race we had this year was real close, and this one was no different,” said coach Howard Paradis. “Our runners just came in good. Yes, this one was sweeter than last year.”

In Class A, the Mt. Blue Cougars of Farmington won their third straight crown, this one over Morse of Bath by a 60-72 margin. Mount Ararat of Topsham, Cony of Augusta, Edward Little of Auburn, Leavitt of Turner and Brewer are all moving on to states.

“It really wasn’t different [from the other two],” said Cougars coach Kelly Cullenburg. “Morse was right there, and they were right there at KVAC’s. They knew what they had to do.”

Nicholas Kazar of Edward Little won the race in 16:53.2, followed by Cony’s Elias Tapely (16:59), Mount Ararat’s Raleigh Swan (16:59.8), Mt. Blue’s Adam Deveau (17:00.9) and Brewer’s Brendan Carr (17:16).