Fall is officially here, temperatures are perfect for running, and it is shaping up to be another amazing cross country season for the Boothbay Region High School Seahawks.

On Wednesday, Sept. 24, the Boothbay boys trounced the competition at the Mountain Valley Conference mid-season meet at UMaine Augusta. With all five scorers finishing in the top 10, Boothbay showed that its early season win over Winthrop was no fluke.

On Sept. 10, the Seahawks beat Winthrop by 11 points; on Wednesday, their margin of victory was a whopping 37 points. Boothbay easily won the meet with 26 points, followed by Winthrop, 63, Lisbon, 88, Hall-Dale, 110, Madison, 124, Dirigo, 131 and St. Dom’s 174.

Based on race times this season, Derek Veilleux, Maine Milesplit now ranks the Boothbay boys team as second in Class C for the state, behind an extremely fast Merriconeag squad.

“Looking at the results and compiled stats, it appears we are certainly headed in the right direction as championship season approaches,” Coach Nick Scott wrote in an email. “The boys easily took the win, besting runner-up Winthrop by almost 40 points. Winthrop is a stronger team than what they showed on Wednesday, but nevertheless it was an impressive win.”

The Lady Seahawks did not fare as well at the prelims, this time losing to Lisbon, who they beat the previous week at home. St. Dom’s topped the girls pack with 38 points, followed by Monmouth, 59, Boothbay, 75, Hall-Dale, 104, Dirigo, 111, and Carrabec, 113.

“The girls placed third, which was a decent race for where we are at right now as a team. We have several areas where we can make some big improvements regarding finishing time and place and so hopefully the hard work that we are putting in during Phase III of training will pay off starting in mid October,” Scott said.

At UMA, sophomore Joey Paolillo led the Seahawks to the finish line, finishing third at 18:22, followed by freshman Kyle Ames (5th, 18:39). These two aren’t just speedy for Boothbay or Class C. Paolillo and Ames are each currently ranked sixth among all other runners in their respective class year statewide.

Kyle Alamo finished third for BRHS (6th, 18:53), followed closely by Matt Burnham (7th, 18:58) and Kyler Carty, who set a new PR on Wednesday (9th, 19:10). Trystan Mercier finished 11th at 19:16 and Dan Drummond 17th at 19:53. Sam Betts, Sam Burnham, Noah Sherburne and Max Hoecker all set new personal records on the tough UMA course.

Junior Hannah Morley (2nd, 21:42) turned in another terrific performance at UMA, this time almost catching frontrunner Emma Wilson of Hall-Dale (1st, 21:29) while delivering her fastest time this season. Morley has been a consistent frontrunner for BRHS and is currently ranked 24th in the state for junior girls.

Morgan Crocker finished second for the Lady Seahawks (14th, 23:55), followed by Lincoln Hamblett (16th, 24:10), Kate Friant (26th, 25:54) and Genevieve Taylor (43rd, 29:06).

On Oct. 4, the Seahawks head to Belfast to participate in the annual Festival of Champions meet, where the top teams and runners in the state gather to compete on a very fast course.

For full MVC prelim results, click here.