The Festival of Champions meet, held every October in Belfast, is a cross country season favorite for at least two reasons. First, the course is fast and runners have a great opportunity to set new personal records. Second, it is a huge race with hundreds of entrants in each category and fans milling and cheering all along the course.

However, all those other runners on the course can make it difficult to maneuver. So while some runners post great times, others get bogged down in the crowd.

At this year’s festival, the Seahawks appeared mostly undeterred by all the competition. In all, 15 Seahawks set new personal records on Saturday, Oct. 4 at Belfast.

“Unless you are way up front, running in such large races is a unique experience that can be really hard to find success in,” Coach Nick Scott wrote in an email. ”The majority of our team, however, was able to do just that.  A couple of athletes even had really big PRs.” 

In the freshmen race, Kyle Ames finished fourth out of 183 finishers in 17:56, taking over 30 seconds off his best time to date. Coach Scott reports that Ames is among only a handful of Seahawks who have medaled in the festival’s freshmen race.

Ames wasn’t alone among his classmates in breaking records: all of Boothbay’s freshmen set new personal records on Saturday. Jay Hasch (59th, 20:09) surpassed his previous best of 20:52; Graham Bryer (76th, 20:51) took a minute and half off his fastest time of 22:28; Lincoln Hamblett (50th, 23:17) smashed her former best of 24:10; Will Berry (178th, 29:19) took 30 seconds off his former best and Max Hoecker (181st, 32:58) beat his previous record by almost a full minute.

In the boys seeded race, Joey Paolillo easily bested his last season PR (17:29), finishing 43rd at 17:10, while seniors Kyle Alamo, Kyler Carty and Trystan Mercier took advantage of their last festival to crush their previous records. Alamo finished at 18:03 (41 seconds faster than his former PR), Carty at 18:23, beating his old best by 47 seconds, and Mercier at 18:51, 19 seconds faster than his previous PR. Dan Drummond also set a new PR, finishing at 19:03, a half minute faster than his previous best.

In the boys unseeded race, Shane Johnson (20:05), Dave Machon (20:27), Morgen Wilson (21:14) and Noah Sherburne (23:21) all set new records.

In team scoring, Coach Scott reports that BRHS boys topped all Class C teams at Belfast.

“Merriconeag was missing their number one runner, and had he been there and ran his PR they would have beaten us,” Scott wrote. “The good news, however, is that our performance proves that we can match up with them and they are NOT unbeatable.”

The Seahawks return to regular competition this week with a meet at Lisbon on Wednesday, Oct. 8.