TURNER – The Brewer girls cross country team certainly had no problems with the sloppy, rainy conditions that plagued Saturday’s state championships at Leavitt Area High School.

The Witches churned and chugged their way through the 3.1-mile quagmire en route to a third-place finish in a competitive Class A race in which the top three teams were separated by nine points.

“We didn’t let the conditions bother us. I thought we ran really, really tough,” said Brewer coach Glendon Rand, who added that the third-place effort was the Witches’ best in the state meet since their 1997 state championship.

Brunswick retained its hold on the Class A throne, compiling 105 points to runner-up Scarborough’s 109 and Brewer’s 114.

Massabesic of Waterboro, which was at the center of a controversy, took fourth with 119 while Catherine McAuley of Portland was fifth out of 14 teams with 136 points.

Massabesic’s No. 4 and 5 runners, Nicole Smith and Kendra Johnson, were disqualified when meet officials determined they attempted to assist each other by holding hands at the end of the race.

According to Rule 4, Section 5, Article 8-c of the National Federation rulebook, competitors are “prohibited from joining or grasping hands with each other during a race.”

Mustangs coach Mark Crepeau appealed the decision but it was upheld.

Cape Elizabeth blitzed the Class B field in winning its second title in three seasons while Waynflete of Portland captured Class C honors.

In Class A, the Witches came in with a goal of being competitive, which they accomplished.

“Without a doubt it was a good race for us, I’m very proud of them,” Rand said. “They should be proud of themselves.

Junior Katie Snow was Brewer’s top finisher in 14th place, followed by freshman Michelle Haluska in 15th. Sophomore Bekah Clark was 21st and junior Kaitlin Noyes 26th, while classmates Ashley Geiser (38th), Caitlyn Wilson (51st) and Brooke Madden (52nd) rounded out the lineup.

Like they did at last week’s regional championships where they finished second to the Dragons, the Witches’ frontrunners keyed on staying close to Brunswick’s lead pack while at the same time keeping their pack somewhat close.

“We ran well together as a team,” Rand said. “We’ve run against Brunswick so much we know how we have to do in relation to them.”

The spread between No. 1 Snow and No. 5 Geiser was 58 seconds.

As is the case with runner-up Scarborough, the Witches didn’t have a single senior in their lineup, which bodes well for both teams.

“Hopefully we’ll be right back in it fighting for it next year,” Rand said.

The No. 5 slot was the difference for the Dragons, as soph Erica Noe finished eight spots ahead of Scarborough’s Meghan Summerson.

In Class B, Old Town senior Hilary Maxim sloshed through the slop to a fourth-place finish, sprinting past Mount Desert Island junior Heather Spurling down the homestretch.

“It’s always great competition between me and her, I love her so much,” said Maxim, who clocked a solid time of 20 minutes, 6.96 seconds. “She’s doing awesome I want to wish her the best of luck next year, she’s going to go far.”

Like many runners throughout the day, Maxim had to shorten her stride to maintain solid footing.

“My strides were really short and I lost a lot of ground on the course,” she said. “It was really slippery in the mud.”

Maxim’s time Saturday was only 11 seconds off her winning effort from last year, and she hopes those efforts will give her some momentum heading into the New England championships and beyond into track season.

“It was hard, I’ve struggled all season long and wanted to finish well,” she said.

The Capers showed why they have been ranked atop the MTCCCA polls all season, tucking three runners in the top 10 and overwhelming runner-up York 50 points to 98.

EM champ MDI, led by Spurling’s fifth-place effort, finished fifth with 148 points while Caribou was sixth with 169 in the 12-team field.

John Bapst of Bangor sophomore Kim Spencer finished eighth in 20:25.20, while Vikings junior Hannah Saunders was right behind in ninth (20:27.38).

Yarmouth’s Anna Makaretz ran to individual honors in 19:47.90, good for the day’s fastest time.

In Class C, Waynflete tucked all five scorers in the top 15 en route to the program’s first state title.

The Flyers, led by individual champ Adele Espy, tallied 40 points to runner-up Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln’s 50. Monmouth Academy took third with 105, followed by Lisbon (107) and Hall-Dale of Farmingdale (129).

Senior Tess Crain and junior Zoe Sobel finished third and 10th for Waynflete, while Edith Iyer-Hernandez, a sophomore and senior Nina Whitney rounded out the scoring in 12th and 14th.

Espy pulled away from Hall-Dale senior Magen Ellis in the last mile and clocked a 20:08.7 to top the individual competition. Ellis settled for second in 20:15.96.

EM champ Mattanawcook was paced by Renee LaFlamme, who finished seventh overall. Jana Larlee was MA’s second runner in 11th while Hannah Ruhl took 14th.

Grace Boutot of Fort Kent captured fourth, and Penobscot Valley of Howland’s Casey McCloskey finished 10th.