At the Western Regional Class C Championship race on Saturday, Oct. 25, the Boothbay Region High School boys cross country team’s depth earned them a hard fought victory over top-ranked Merriconeag.

Cross country team race scoring is based on the cumulative scores (place) of the top five finishers. On Saturday, the Seahawks were able to push the decision to the sixth runner and upset Merriconeag.

”It came down to our depth. The name of the game in these big meets is depth,” Coach Nick Scott said after the race. “We were trying to get our seventh guy in before their fifth (which they did) and then with the tie, our sixth runner (Kyle Alamo) was way ahead of their sixth, which earned us the win.”

BRHS boys won the regional title with 51 points, followed by Merriconeag, 51, Winthrop, 89, North Yarmouth Academy, 149, Madison, 163, Dirigo, 173, Hall-Dale, 182, St. Dom’s, 222, Traip Academy, 242 and Carrabec, 296.

Runners from 16 Class C teams converged at Twin Brook in Cumberland early Saturday morning. Teams gathered around brightly colored tents and jogged in groups while parents and spectators mingled under clear skies and gradually warming temperatures.

The Boothbay boys looked strong throughout the course, with no visible signs of strain on their faces, and each charged to the finish line with determination and speed.

Sophomore Joey Paolillo led BRHS, finishing fifth overall at 18:04. Merriconeag’s first runner Tucker Pierce (3rd, 17:42 ) preceded Paolillo in; and snapping at his heels were two more Merriconeag runners, brothers Zach Neveu (6th, 18:06) and Nick Neveu (7th, 18:07).

“I didn’t realize the two Merriconeag runners were right behind me until after we finished,” Paolillo said after the race, while still catching his breath. “I’m the most tired I’ve been after a race. This course is all up and down hills; it really hurts after awhile.”

Freshman Kyle Ames (9th, 18:30) and senior Kyler Carty (10th, 18:31) finished virtually together next for BRHS, each turning in one of his best races of the season, and joining Paolillo in the top 10.

“All the teams were prepared for a muddy course, but it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be,” Carty said after the race. “I felt pretty good for most of the race.”

At this point, Merriconeag and Boothbay both had three runners in but Merriconeag was leading.

Then Matt Burnham came straining in to the finish line in a duel with Traip Academy’s Jacob Christiansen, who Burnham finally passed at the line. Burnham (14th, 18:48) not only beat Christiansen (15th, 18:48), he also beat Merriconeag’s fourth finisher Dylan Wu (16th, 18:51).

Then, for a moment it was all BRHS and no Merriconeag. Trystan Mercier finished fifth for BRHS (19th, 18:59), Kyle Alamo sixth (22nd, 19:13) and Dan Drummond seventh (24th, 19:19). Boothbay had all their runners in and Merriconeag was still waiting on their fifth scorer, Lars Gundersen (25th, 19:23).

As is often the case in tight races such as this, no one was sure of the outcome until the final scores were tallied.

“The team ran with a lot of confidence. They were aggressive, but smart aggressive,” Scott said. “One of the great aspects of this year’s team is that we have that true makeup of the successful cross country team, where you’ve got that one guy who can mix it up up front and then you have the rest of the pack and they’re fluid, but in a good way, in that they are all very competitive runners.

“We had all five scorers in the top 20 and all seven runners in the top 30. We did what we planned to do, which was to pack it in between their third and fourth runners. I’m really proud of them.”

Now the Seahawks will set their sights on the grand prize, the state championship title. Saturday’s victory shows the state Class C title is clearly within BRHS’s reach, but by no means assured. In fact, it looks to be another nail-biter.

“Next week, we will see more of the same and the other teams will be a pivotal factor,” Scott said. “Next week, we add some really high quality teams like Orono, Fort Kent and George Stevens Academy. While I don’t think they have the depth to go all the way, they will be a really big factor in where runners place.”

“When you know that they’re (Merriconeag) going to score three runners before our second runner, you’re really banking on other teams scoring runners and pushing back their runners. If other finishers fall between Merriconeag’s third guy and our second guy, that’s really bad for us, but if they fall in between our fifth and their fourth runner that’s huge. So we will be taking a hard look at that this week.”

After another great racing season for the Seahawks, it all comes down to that final state championship race next Saturday, Nov. 1, on the speedy Troy Howard Middle School course in Belfast.

The Class C boys race is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. and Class C girls at 11:45 a.m.