OLD TOWN – Saturday’s 58th annual Sectional Invitational marked the halfway point of the high school cross-country season and a number of teams are starting to climb toward their championship level of fitness.

The Mount Desert Island girls and Caribou boys made great strides in reaching that level Saturday, each defending the Sectional titles they won a year ago.

While the Vikings ran away with their team title, tucking all five scorers in the top 10, the MDI Trojans had to rely on their fifth runner to overcome a 4-5-7-8 finish by Caribou.

MDI’s fifth runner, MacKenzie Curtis, finished five slots ahead of Vikes’ No. 5 Laura Collins, and the Trojans headed back to the Island with a 43-44 victory.

John Bapst of Bangor placed third with 66 points, followed by Old Town with 97 and Presque Isle with 103.

The Caribou boys finished with 20 points, 22 ahead of Aroostook Country rival and runnerup Presque Isle.

John Bapst was third out of four scoring teams with 82 and Schenck of East Millinocket scored 95.

PI’s Corey Park was the individual champ in the boys’ race, covering the 3.1-mile course in 17 minutes, 1.37 seconds while MDI’s Heather Spurling overtook Hilary Maxim of Old Town to win the girls’ individual crown in 19:23.59.

In the girls meet, Spurling and Maxim were neck-and-neck throughout the stretch portion of the race before the MDI junior made a surge with just under a quarter-mile to go, using a last bit of energy that she didn’t even think was in her.

“I don’t really know,” she admitted when asked the origin of that last ounce of energy. “I was just thinking that it would be a shame to come this far and lose it at the end.”

Spurling reached a personal mark, bettering her Sectional time from a year ago by almost a minute, while clocking her best performance so far this fall.

“It was my best time so far [this year] so I’m really proud of that,” she said.

Spurling was even happier to lead the defending Class B state champs to the narrow victory over a strong Vikings squad which finished ahead of Trojans at the season-opening Ellsworth Invitational.

“It was really close,” she said of the final tally. “We were going for the win so we were proud of that.”

The Trojans posted a solid pack time (the difference between a team’s first and fifth runners) of 2:16.

“I think we’re doing really good, this was our first really racing meet,” said freshman Kailyn Russell, who was the Trojans’ third finishers in 12th place.

Spurling concurred, feeling now is the time to kick things into high gear.

“I feel like we’ve kind of been on the down-low for the beginning of the season,” Spurling said. “Now its time to step it up and we’re doing that.”

Jessica Swanson captured sixth, Frances Blank 13th, Curtis 17th, Lily Madera 18th and Jessica Rothenheber 26th to round out coach Kate Goupee’s lineup.

Maxim’s second place time was 19:40.46, while Bapst’s Kim Spencer finished third in 19:58.69. Hannah Saunders (19:58.69) and Dayna Michaud (20:05.62) of Caribou took fourth and fifth while Casey McCloskey of Howland-based Penobscot Valley was seventh (21:07.66).

Rounding out the top 10 were the Vikes’ Mary Jo Sheehan in eighth (21:12.10), Janelle Gagnon in ninth (21:14.61 and Maren Askins of Bapst in 10th (21:15.76).

In the boys meet, Spencer McElwain led a strong pack of Caribou runners which finished with an impressive pack time of 49 seconds.

“Overall as a pack we did well. We worked well together, that’s what we’ve been training for,” said senior captain McElwain, who took second overall in 17:21.48.

Jesse Stephens captured third for the Vikes, Stephen Melbourne fifth, Christinan Sleeper sixth, Jordan Powers seventh, Finn Bondeson 10th and Tim Freme rounded out coach Roy Alden’s lineup in 13th.

Stephens, a junior competing in cross country for the first time this fall, feels there is nowhere to go but up.

“We definitely feel that we can improve, we’re all pretty competitive guys,” said Stephens, who finished in 17:33.31.

McElwain noted that the Vikes peaked too soon a year ago, and are aiming to hit their stride come championship time.

“We’re training to peak for regionals and states, we’ve trained to have our best races at the state meet,” he said.

Sleeper, who finished in 18:09.59, said that Caribou’s strong junior varsity program isn’t the only thing that keeps the varsity runners working hard.

“Coach [Alden] pressures us [a lot],” Sleeper said with a laugh.

Presque Isle’s Park came out of the woods uncontested and cruised home the last half-mile, bettering McElwain by 20 seconds.

David Falls of Old Town ran to a strong fourth in 17:47.17, exchanging a resounding high-five with coach Rod White after finishing.

Jason Johnson of Presque Isle was eighth (18:10.54) and MDI’s Tucker Smith ninth (18:11.11).

Both the MDI girls and Caribou boys also took team honors in the JV competition.

MDI’s Tarryn Rourk took first in the girls JV race in 24:07.78 while Kyle St. Peter of Caribou captured boys JV honors in 19:28.37.