AUGUSTA – The Brewer girls cross country team prides itself on running together and having an unbreakable pack.

That tactic worked well for the Witches at Saturday’s Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championships at the Augusta Civic Center. They posted a pack time (the time differential between a team’s first and fifth runner) of 42 seconds en route to a second-place finish in the Class A division.

“That’s been our strength all year,” said Brewer coach Glendon Rand. “What’s nice is they’re starting to move up closer to the front.”

Freshman Michelle Haluska, juniors Katie Snow and Kaitlin Noyes and sophomore Bekah Clark finished 8-10-11-12 to bolster the Witches’ pack while Ashley Geiser, also a junior, was 15th.

Two-time defending state champion Brunswick was a bit too strong, and the Dragons took home team honors with 33 points while Brewer scored 56. Mt. Blue of Farmington was third in the 10-team field with 86 points.

Bangor finished sixth with 163 points while Hampden Academy was seventh with 168.

Mt. Blue sophomore Silver Hunt captured individual honors in 20 minutes, 34.9 second over 3.1 miles.

Lewiston captured the team crown in the boys competition with 47 points, while Mt. Blue was second with 87.

Brewer was fourth with 136, Bangor seventh with 168 and Hampden ninth out of 13 schools with 217 points.

Blue Devils’ senior Mohamed Noor captured individual honors, pulling away from Bangor’s Riley Masters and Mt. Blue’s Eric Marceau and posting an impressive time of 16:37.7 seconds on the wet, hilly course.

Masters was second in 16:43.9.

The Maranacook of Readfield girls and Medomak Valley of Waldoboro boys won the Class B races.

In the girls meet, KVAC newcomer Brewer exhibited the pack power that has made it one of the top teams in the conference this fall.

“We really work well together, we keep each other going,” said Snow, who clocked a 22:06.9.

Junior Caitlyn Wilson was the Witches’ sixth runner in 19th place and classmate Brooke Madden rounded out Brewer’s lineup in 20th.

Wilson admitted the University of Maine-Augusta course, on which the Witches were competing for the first time, was a challenge.

“It was difficult not knowing all the turns and stuff,” she said. “We really attacked it quite well.”

As good as Brewer’s pack was, Brunswick’s 1-2 punch of Caroline Webster and Clare Franco finished second and third, showing why the Dragons are the two-time defending state champions.

“Brunswick is very, very good, they have a lot of experience,” Rand said. “We ran our best race of the season, it’s just that Brunswick’s a really good team and they ran better.”

Brewer’s steady improvement was evident.

“We’ve been working hard, we’re putting in a lot of hard work,” said Noyes, who was right behind Snow in 22:07.0.

“We’ve picked it up a lot over the last couple weeks, the girls are training really hard,” Rand concurred.

Bangor sophomore Rachel Huber placed 15th in 22:34.4 while Hampden Academy senior Lacey Littlefield led the Broncos with a 25th-place finish.

Medomak senior Kasey Eaton took individual honors in the Class B race, finishing in 20:37.7.

In the boys’ meet, Bangor’s Masters led most of the way before Noor and Marceau made a move just after the two-mile mark.

Masters eventually caught up to the Cougars’ senior and nearly ran down Noor.

“I just set my sights on Marceau, I started to gain a little bit on Noor so I was like hey, I can do this,” Masters said.

He was a little surprised that Noor hung back and let Marceau take over for a short while before making his move.

“They were going back and forth for a while, then Noor just took off like he always does,” Masters said.

Running the UMA trails for the first time, Masters was pleased with his effort and is confident he can gain more ground on Noor on a faster Eastern Regional course next weekend.

“The first mile felt good, the second was a little hilly so I wasn’t feeling too hot but that’s understandable,” he said. “Once I got closer to Noor at the end I felt good about myself. I’m getting a lot closer.”

Noor’s Blue Devils tucked three scorers in the top 10, further establishing themselves as the top schoolboy team in Maine.

Evan Taylor and Travis Blackmer finished 15th and 18th, respectively, to spark Brewer while Evan Piccirillo continued a strong freshman season for Hampden Academy with a 15th-place finish.

Lincoln Academy of Newcastle’s Michael Howland won the Class B race in 17:25.5.