BELFAST — Lisandro Berry-Gaviria’s plan worked to perfection.
As for Sofie Matson’s face-plant, that worked out as well as could be expected.
In the end, both runners successfully defended their Class A cross country state championships on a raw Saturday morning, with times faster than any others who followed in the other meets at Troy Howard Middle School.
In team competition, the Scarborough boys and Bonny Eagle girls ran away from their competition. At full strength for the first time in three weeks, the Red Storm squeezed five runners among the top 23 to build a 20-point cushion over runner-up Bangor.
The Scots won even more decisively, with five in the top 29 to run away from Falmouth and Camden Hills by 43 points. Falmouth was second by virtue of its sixth runner, breaking the tie with Camden Hills, the 2017 state champion.
Edward Little’s Jillian Richardson finished third in the girls’ race with a time of 18:56, behind Matson and Gorham’s Kate Tugman. Richardson suffered a cramp in her left leg during the final mile, which slowed the senior considerably.
“She was still limping very badly when we got back to Auburn,” EL head coach Keith Weatherbie said. “The trainer at the meet tried to work the cramp out but said it would take a while … She is a real trooper.”
Kahryn Cullenberg ran a personal best time of 19:08.49, which was good enough for sixth place.
Richardson and Cullenberg qualified for the New England championships.
Lewiston’s Maurice Beaulieu placed 53rd in the boys’ Class A race.
Berry-Gaviria, a Mt. Ararat junior, won last weekend’s North regional by 24 seconds over this same 5-kilometer course, but a conservative start produced a time slower than he wanted.
“This week I knew I wanted to just make it a fast race right from the start and kind of dare everyone to come with me,” he said. “It worked out pretty well.”
Indeed, Berry-Gaviria won in 15 minutes, 35.40 seconds — seventh all-time at Belfast and the fastest ever run at a state championship meet. No one else broke 16 minutes.
Gabe Coffey of Bangor was second in 16:02, followed by John Auer of Falmouth, Tristram Coffin of Scarborough and Will Shaughnessy of Brunswick, which won the North title last week and held an early lead Saturday.
“Our pack had to move up,” Scarborough coach Jim Harmon said, “just as they have in the last half of the season.”
Connor Coffin returned from a three-week absence (hip injury) to finish 12th. Zachary Barry was 17th, Erik LoSacco 19th and Harrison Osborne 23rd.
Scarborough finished with 69 points to 89 for Bangor, 119 for Greely and 125 for Brunswick. Bangor, Brunswick and Greely qualified for the New England meet, along with the three class champions and individuals with times among the top 25, regardless of class.
There was talk Thursday of postponing the meet because of foul weather that, as expected, arrived shortly after noon. Instead, organizers moved up the start by an hour and shortened times between races.
Matson, a Falmouth sophomore, took note of the slick grass and mud behind the starting line. But when the gun went off, she went down immediately.
“Honestly, I didn’t expect to be so calm,” she said. “I’ve never fallen in a race before. I kind of didn’t even register what was happening.”
After scrambling to her feet, she picked her way through the field and eventually shook Tugman and Richardson, who finished 16 and 23 seconds behind Matson’s winning time of 18:33.51.
Bonny Eagle freshman Delaney Hesler was fourth in 19:02 and senior Ami Beaumier fifth in 19:05. The Scots claimed their third title in four years after finishing out the scoring with Kayla Raymond at 13th, Hannah Stevens at 21st and Emma Abbott at 29th.
“A full team performance,” said coach Mike Burleson. “Our top five had their best race of the year.”
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