AUGUSTA

Mt. Blue High School showed it should be one of the top teams in Class A this fall with a season-opening standout cross country performance on Friday in the Laliberte Invitational.

The Cougars had the first two harriers across the line, with Class A top returner Josh Horne leading the way. Horne covered the difficult 2.4 mile layout in 13:21.9.

Behind him was Texas transfer Aaron Willingham, who led the race early on. Willingham, who ran 10:03 on the track last year as a sophomore, looks to make an immediate impact in his junior campaign and he was eight seconds back in 13:29.

There was a gap to the next group led by Messalonskee senior Logan Moses, who was third in 13:53. He was followed by Winthrop junior Ben Allen in 13:58. Rounding out the top-five was Jason Stevenson of Maranacook, who broke 14 minutes (13:59.53).

Team-wise for the boys, Mt. Blue dominated the rest of the field as the Cougars tallied 57 points, with Horne and Willingham (1-2). They also got a strong run from Dan Lesko (seventh), along with Thad Gunther (19) and Brendan Hickey (28).

Mt. Ararat was second with 97 points. The Eagles had two runners in the top-10 with Sam Wood ninth and Nathan MacKenzie 10th.

Messalonskee was third with 115 points, while Maranacook (121) was fourth. In fifth was Brunswick (140), led by John Murphy (16th, 15:20) and Jason Higginbotham (20th, 15:27).

In the girls race South Portland’s Shannon Conley, a transfer from Cheverus, made the trip north worth it as she opened her season with a win.

Conley, a senior, covered the 2.4-mile layout in 16:12.02 and her time placed her 46th in the combined results. Conley is healthy once again, recovering from foot surgery last winter and into the spring.

Behind Conley was sophomore Anne McKee of Kents Hill (16:25.04). McKee the MAISAD state champion a year ago. Last year in the same race she ran a 17:31. Right behind in third was Teresa Murphy of Brunswick in 16:25.4. Fourth went to Murphy’s teammate, sophomore Tessa Cassidy (16:35), and she was followed in fifth by another sophomore, Casey Loring of South Portland in 17:14.

In the girls team race, Brunswick showed why it is considered one of the favorites to win the Class A title as the Dragons were the best girls team by over 100 points.

Brunswick has plenty of room for improvement too as sophomore standout Tiffany Tanner ran 19:08. One year ago she ran 16:51. With Murphy and Cassidy leading the way, Tanner took third on her team, with Brooke Escoe (19:09) fourth, and right behind was Ruth Van Kampen (19:13).

Maranacook was the second team with 590 points, edging out Mt. Ararat (592).

The Black Bears were paced by Hannah Depres (17:37), while Mt. Ararat got a top-10 finish from Kelly Lynch (17:20). South Portland was next with 604 points, while Winslow (687) rounded out the top-five.

In the unique team scoring format of adding the boys and girls team scores together to decide the team champion, Brunswick came out on top with the top girls teams (471) and fifth-place boys team (140) for a low score of 611.

Mt. Ararat placed second, with the boys scoring 97 points and the girls 592 for a 689 total. Maranacook had the third-best team overall at 711.