He certainly seems to have made the right decision.

Scarborough’s Nate Hathaway continued his impressive start to the cross country season as he raced to a first-place finish on a rain-soaked course in Kennebunk last Friday afternoon. After two years with the Scarborough boys soccer team, the Red Storm junior chose to run cross country this fall and that’s only made a strong team even stronger.

“It was a really tough decision, but once I understood my potential I switched to cross country,” said a relaxed Hathaway after the race.

Hathaway came in with a time of 15:37, looking very strong as he crossed the finish line ahead of his teammate Craig Robinson (15:59) who he ran with most of the race.

“I’m not quite sure, but people have been telling me it might be the course record,” said Hathaway about his impressive victory. And he understands he’s only one piece of what it takes to win at next month’s regional meet and the Nov. 1 state meet.

“We’re trying to win (it all) this year,” Hathaway said matter-of-factly. “We’re a very deep team. We have three or four guys fighting for our seventh position right now.”

Hathaway may have been the fastest Red Storm runner last week, but his teammates impressed as well. Scarborough’s talented squad pushed the meet’s first nine runners across the finish line. Not too far behind Hathaway and Robinson were Sam Chick (third in 16:42), Sean Griffin (fourth in 16:51), Brad Nakanishi (fifth in 17:06), and Zach Brown (sixth in 17:21) followed by Duncan Scott (17:30), Dave O’Sullivan-Frost (17:37) and Joe Prosack (17:51).

Scarborough’s score of 15 points easily beat a young and inexperienced Kennebunk team, which scored 50.

The Scarborough girls also emerged with a victory in a much more competitive tri-meet with McAuley and Kennebunk. The three teams all finished in the top four at the SMAA Relays on Sept. 3 in Saco. The Storm also won that event with the Lions a close second.

Unlike the boys race, the Scarborough girls did not have a runner finish in the top three, but they did have six runners in the 4 through 10 spots.

The Storm was led by a solid effort from Melissa Dellatorre (fourth in 19:39) followed by Whitney Chamberlain (fifth in 19:43), Abby Chick (sixth in 19:44), Sarah Dugas (seventh in 19:53), Erin McElwain (ninth in 20:44), and Libby Davis (10th in 20:51).

Those times gave Scarborough a winning total of 31 points to top the challenges from McAuley (48) and Kennebunk (53).

The Storm also got good news this week when the latest state cross country rankings were released. The Scarborough boys sit at No. 2 in the poll, just eight points behind top-ranked Greely. Scarborough is not the only local team at the top of the standings, as the Cape Elizabeth boys sit at No. 4.

On the girls side, the rankings are unchanged from last week, with Cape sitting in the top spot, followed closely by Scarborough, who is just 11 points behind the Capers at No. 2.

The Red Storm cross country teams will race in a quad meet on Friday in Portland against Biddeford, Marshwood and the Bulldogs.

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