The Seahawk boys cross-country team will be going to the Class C State Championships for the 11th straight season. Both teams traveled to Cumberland on Oct. 20 to face off against Southern Maine’s best cross-country teams. The boys earned a comfortable third place while Traip Academy edged the girls out of States by just 11 points.

“The boys team placed third, but as impressive of a feat as that was, it wasn't the best news on the day,” said Coach Nick Scott. “Regionals is about qualifying for states, which we easily did, but what I'm quite happy about is the trajectory of the team. We ended up running 30 points better than our pre-race seed as many of our runners had their best races of the season.”

Will Perkins once again led the pack placing sixth – and only six seconds away from third place – with a time of 18:22. Fox Elder finished 12th in 18:57; Blake Erhard, 27th, 19:40; Mason Erhard, 29th, 19:44; Graham Harris, 32nd, 19:52; Nathan Chatterton, 43rd, 20:29; and Rowan Kristan, 63rd, 21:44.

Faith Blethen placed fourth in 21:33 and Glory Blethen placed 7th in 22:44. Grace Campbell placed 45th in 26:51 while Zada Smith and Maria West finished neck and neck at 51st and 52nd respectively with times of 28:11 and 28:31. Delly Clarkson finished 61st in 30:21.

Scott said it was difficult to see the girls come so close to going to States only to miss out by a handful of points. “It was however a really great season that saw a much better team run Regionals than what started the year. Congratulations, girls, on a fantastic cross-country season.”

Perkins, ready to run with the best Class C athletes, said Scott, will be joined by Elder who was seeded in 25th at the beginning of the race. Blake Erhard, who has been missing most of the season, has stepped it up and will surely be key for States as will his brother Mason who put up his best race this season, said Scott. Harris ran on a hurt ankle only to come out strong for his team and Nathan Chatterton put up a personal record on what is considered one of the more difficult courses for Class C teams.

“What an amazing transformation over the course of the season,” said Scott. “(Nathan’s) race … was the equivalent of a sub-20:00 performance if he had been running at a fast course like Medomak or Belfast.”

The Seahawk boys team will travel to Troy Howard Middle School on Saturday, Oct. 28 to compete in the Class C State Championships.