BELFAST – Going into the state championship, the Scarborough boys were looking for redemption.

After having the state title snatched from them a year ago, the Red Storm made a 3.1-mile statement heard around the Troy Howard Middle school grounds Saturday.

Led by the 5-10-11 finish of Travis Griffin (16:45.1), Chris Harmon (17:02.9) and Mike Griffin (17:08.1), Scarborough easily outdistanced runner-up Bonny Eagle of Buxton 53-115 to win the Class A title. Eastern Maine champ Mt. Blue of Farmington was third with 131 points, Portland placed fourth with 139, and Deering of Portland was fifth with 165.

As his team stayed together true to form (37-second pack time), coach Jim Harmon just sat back and watched.

“It’s just the nature of the sport having them together like that,” he said. “Having that pack brings the score down. This is a great group of kids that have trained together since June. You couldn’t ask for a better result.”

The pack time is the difference between a team’s first- and fifth-place runners as the Red Storm benefited from Brecht Moulin (14th, 17:14) and Henry Prosack (18th, 17:22).

With South Portland standout Eric Giddings out with a stress fracture, the door was wide-open for Portland junior Ayalew Taye. Taye turned in the day’s fastest time, touring the 5K loop in 15:39.6. His brother Sintayehu was 11 seconds behind in second.

In Class B, the Greely Rangers of Cumberland Center showed why they’ve been the dominant force in Maine cross country over the past few years.

Led by the third-place effort of Casey Diehl (16:19.5), the Rangers tucked five runners in the top 25 to cruise past Cape Elizabeth 83-115 and win their fifth title in six seasons.

Falmouth finished third while York was fourth. Ellsworth led all EM teams in fifth while regional champ Hampden was sixth out of 14 teams.

According to veteran coach David Dowling, the Rangers had to play it safe in a fast field.

“I just told them to be conservative in the first mile since everybody would go out like hell,” he said. “We wanted to key off Falmouth’s top three.”

The Rangers and Yachstmen were stride for stride for the first three runners, but Greely’s 4 through 7 runners went 22-24-28-30, compared to Falmouth’s 40-50-59-80, to seal the deal.

“Those top three are nice low scores to have,” Dowling said. “We showed up a little battered, but were still able to pull it out.”

Diehl had battled an Achilles’ problem at the regionals last week, according to his coach, but ran a gutsy race.

“He didn’t really train all week,” said Dowling. “He went from 16th to third in the second mile.”

Belfast senior Levi Miller took the individual title with an impressive time of 15:42 while Miles Bartlett from Lake Region in Naples was second (15:52).

In Class C, Lisbon showed why it was the heavy favorite by putting three runners in the top four and five in the top 19 to outrun North Yarmouth 38-63. Winthrop finished third, Wiscasset fourth, and EM champ Central of Corinth fifth out of nine teams.

Phil Morlock (9th, 17:44.1) was the big key to the Greyhounds’ triumph, according to coach Hank Fuller.

“I think he ran a minute faster than he did last year. That was huge,” he said. “All season long the top three runners have been able to run against any top three.”

Lisbon’s Dan Suthers was first overall (16:57.4), while Jared Cloutier (17:07.6) and Tyler Clark (17:11.1) went 3-4.

In Class D, Madawaska went 4-6-10, but Elan of Poland’s fourth and fifth runners were too much for the Eastern Maine champs.

Led by race winner Daniel Seltzer (17:34.1), the Buccaneers edged the Owls 48-53 while Lee Academy was third. Schenck of East Millinocket was fifth among seven teams.

Justin Morin finished fourth (18:01.5) to lead Madawaska, while Kevin Daigle (18:14.7) was sixth and Allen Campbell (18:48) 10th. Three of the next five places, however, went to Elan’s Andrew Ballard (12th, 19:14.2), Adam Petrie (13th, 19:16.1), and Andrew Fabrizio (15th, 19:19.4).

Spencer Thurlow (18:28.2) and Drew Pickering (18:30.6) led the Lee Academy Pandas by going 7-8 while Devon Levesque was 11th (19:00.9).