AUGUSTA — Outstanding individual efforts from Mt. Blue senior Tucker Barber and Maranacook freshman Molly McGrail led their teams to victory at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference cross country meet Saturday.

Barber, the Class A boys’ champion, covered the hilly 3.1-mile course at Cony High School in 16 minutes, 43.2 seconds, bettering the school record of 16:56 set by Aaron Willingham two years ago. McGrail finished in 20:40 to win the Class B girls’ title. Waterville sophomore Nick Dall repeated as Class B boys’ champ, and Mt. Ararat junior Katherine Leckbee won the Class A girls’ title in 19:44.2.

Brunswick won the Class A girls’ title, followed by Mt. Blue and Cony. Lincoln Academy placed first in Class B boys.

Barber didn’t take charge of the boys’ race until hitting a hill about a mile from the finish line.

“I had no idea how the race was going to go,” Barber said. “There were a lot of good people at the front and I could see them and I was just wondering how it was going to play out. By the hill, around the second time, I was just like ‘all right this feels right, I’ll just go for it,’ and I did. I just spent the rest of the race hoping I would hold on.”

Barber beat Jacob Gamache of Edward Little by 12 seconds. The Cougars placed five runners in the top 25 – Zack Robinson (12), Isaiah Reid (13), Emmett Trafton (16) and Sam Stinson (25) – to claim the team title over Hampden Academy by 19 points.

The same teams will compete in the North regionals next week at Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast.

“We just needed to put it all together at the right time,” Mt. Blue Coach Kelley Cullenberg said. “We went through a lot of different scenarios throughout the week, knowing that there were a lot of good teams that were going to be close and we were going to be one of them. They knew what they needed to do.”

McGrail beat her time from a few weeks ago on the faster course in Belfast.

“My strategy was to go out, have fun and try my best,” she said. “I got boxed in at the beginning, but on the hill I made up most of my time. Then, after the second hill, I was leading it.”

McGrail edged Emma Trapani of Camden Hills by six seconds. Camden Hills (63 points) finished second to Maranacook (35) in the team competition.

Laura Parent (fourth), Maddie Taylor (sixth), Caroline Welch (15th) and Lily Welch (20th) rounded out the top five for the Black Bears.

“All seven of them, especially the top five, had really strong races,” Maranacook Coach Rose- lea Kimball said. “Molly certainly had a good race. We obviously had our eye on Camden Hills, and she passed them all.”

Waterville’s Dall finished in 17:14.5, which was considerably faster than a year ago.

“I think I PR’d by over 30 seconds,” he said. “My training paces have been a lot faster and I have been running a little bit more mileage. In the summer, I was hitting 30 (miles a week), but in the season I’ve gotten up to 35 or 40 on some weeks.”

Dall beat Lincoln Academy’s Sam Russ by 37 seconds.

“I stayed with the leaders and tried to not go too fast in the first mile,” said Dall, who finished seventh overall with the Class A runners factored in.

Cony’s Anna Guadalupi, who won two years ago as a sophomore, finished second to Leckbee in a personal-best time of 20:09.7.

“I feel pretty good about it,” Guadalupi said. “I kept her in my sights. She eventually pulled away at the last mile. Last year, I beat her, but she’s come out of nowhere now and is killing everyone.”

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