AUGUSTA – It’s not often that a record-breaking day leaves behind a bittersweet taste.

For Narraguagus High School’s Gladys Ganiel and Yarmouth’s Matt Lane, their winning performances in Saturday’s state Class C championship cross country meet here were slightly spoiled by other teams’ victories.

The Foxcroft Academy girls and Sumner boys spoiled Saturday’s activities for the individual stars, winning team championships at the University of Maine-Augusta on the mildest of late October Saturdays.

Foxcroft’s three-four-and-five runners were packed together within 24 seconds to help the Ponies edge Eastern Maine Class C champion Narraguagus, 51-53 to defend their state title.

Sumner, meanwhile, put three runners in the top 15, to Yarmouth’s one, to pull out a 61-74 victory.

Who said cross country wasn’t a team sport?

For the Foxcroft girls, No. 1 runner Deriann White might have finished more than a minute and half behind Ganiel, but the rest of the Ponies galloped home in a hurry.

White was third overall followed by Erin Kimball in 12th. Then, within 24 seconds, Jess Anderson crossed the line in 17th, Emily Todd in 19th, and Holly Stelmok in 25th.

Narraguagus, meanwhile, had sisters Dara and Heather Knapp finish ninth and 10th, respectively. Their next two runners, though, were 2 minutes, 24 seconds behind in 32nd and 34th.

“We saw our girls run as well as they have in two years,” said Foxcroft coach George Rolleston. “Even before we saw the team scores, we knew they ran a great race. They put everything on the line.”

Ganiel won her third consecutive state individual title, setting the day’s best girls mark of 18 minutes, 16 seconds over the hilly 3-mile layout.

The same went for Lane in the boy’s race. Lane dominated the field to win in a course record 15:30 – splits that average three 5:10 miles. Ryan Richardson of Washington Academy, the EM champ, was second overall, one minute back.

Once Lane crossed the finish line, though, the Tigers made sure the team title belonged to Sumner.

Parker Pruett finished third, Mikey Hibbits seventh, and Davey Seward 15th. Courtney Tibbetts, 25th, and Alan Guyette, 33rd, rounded out Sumner’s scorers.

After Lane, the next Yarmouth runner to cross the stripe was Joel Maynes in 21st.

Western Maine dominated the rest of the team titles with the Mount Ararat boys and Westbrook girls winning Class A titles; the Maranacook boys and Greely of Cumberland girls winning Class B crowns; and the Freeport boys and Seacoast Christian girls winning Class D championships.

Technically, Mount Ararat and Maranacook are Eastern Maine teams. And Freeport is coached by Tim Donovan, a John Bapst standout from the 1970s.

Eastern Maine fared a little better on an individual basis.

The day got off to a good start with freshman Melissa Smith of Machias running away with the Class D victory.

Smith, who had been practicing on the hills of the Great Cove Golf Club in Roque Bluffs – including one morning with a flashlight – took advantage of her training, passing two runners on the final hill and winning in 20:12.

“It feels great,” Smith said. “I like this course a lot. It’s got a lot of hills which keep you going all the way through.”

The next girls race – Class A – developed into a showdown between Presque Isle’s Danielle Donovan and Bangor’s Heather Arsenault.

Donovan, a sophomore, also took advantage of the hills to pull away from Arsenault over the last three quarters of mile to claim her second straight state big school championship.

Donovan finished in 19:02; Arsenault in 19:19.

“I tried to get ahead of her on that last hill,” Donovan said. “Last year, I was scared of that last hill. This year, I just ran hard all the way through.”

“I had worked so hard through the middle of the race, I was really tired at the finish,” said Arsenault, who led much of the race. “That’s how I wanted to run the race, but she’s such a good runner.”

Brian Christianson of Maranacook won the boys B title in 16:03, beating the Ellsworth duo of Joey Luchini, 16:16, and Dana Bellows, 16:23.