CUMBERLAND — Deering senior Iid Sheikh-Yusuf outkicked Scarborough’s Jacob Terry over the final 800 meters of the Class A race to turn in the fastest time of the day at the Western Maine cross country regionals Saturday at Twin Brook Recreation Area.

Sheikh-Yusuf, usually Deering’s No. 2 runner behind Yahye Hussein, covered the five-kilometer course in 16 minutes, 11.58 seconds. Terry was 4.44 seconds behind.

“I was trying to push myself as hard as I could, and I did it,” said Sheikh-Yusuf, a native of Somalia. “(Terry) was ahead until we got to the hill, and I tried to push myself.”

Sheikh-Yusuf passed Terry on a section of the course known as the Pain Cave, a steep hill about 800 meters from the finish line.

“He passed me right there,” Terry said. “I tried to go with him as fast as I could, but I couldn’t catch him.”

The top 30 runners and top 50 percent of teams in Classes A, B and C qualified for the state championships next Saturday at the Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast.

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Falmouth finished three points ahead of Scarborough to capture the Western Class A title. Other teams qualifying in Class A were Massabesic, Gorham, Windham, Marshwood, Deering and Cheverus.

Cape Elizabeth senior Mitch Morris, a former soccer player in his second cross country season, finished first in the Western Class B meet in impressive fashion. He finished the hilly course in 16:45.48, nearly 25 seconds ahead of runner-up Harrison Knowlton of Leavitt.

“Last week in our conference meet (Morris) finished second,” Cape Elizabeth Coach Derek Veilleux said. “He had an off day and didn’t execute his race plan. Today was all about bouncing back and changing things up a little. He told me what he was going to do, and he did exactly what he said out there.”

Teams qualifying for the Class B state meet were York, Greely, Cape Elizabeth, Freeport, Fryeburg Academy, Gray-New Gloucester and Maranacook.

In the Western Class C race, Boothbay and Merriconeag each finished with 51 points for their top five runners, so the regional champion was determined by each team’s sixth runner. Boothbay was awarded the title based on Kyle Alamo 22nd-place finish.

“We ran real strong,” Boothbay Coach Nate Scott said. “We had a specific strategy of what we wanted to do, and we did it pretty well.”

Winthrop, Waynflete, North Yarmouth Academy and Madison also qualified for the state meet.

Ben Allen, a senior from Winthrop, won the Class C individual title in 17:19.03, a little less than 10 seconds ahead of Matthew Malcom of NYA.

“(Conditions) were a million times better than what I thought,” Allen said, referring to the three days of rain that fell earlier in the week. “We were prepared for all conditions. I put half-inch (spikes) on and I was ready for muddy conditions.


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