BELFAST

There likely are as many strategies to win a cross country race as there are winners, or at least that math added up Saturday among the three seniors who emerged with individual state championships.

For Fort Kent’s Matthew Toussaint, the plan was to do whatever it took to cap off his high school career by crossing the finish line first. For Mitch Morris of Cape Elizabeth, it was to give his closest competitor a false sense of security before stealing said security away. And, for Aaron Willingham of Mt. Blue of Farmington, it was one final surge and no looking back.

“I couldn’t ask for a better way to end senior year,” said Toussaint, after completing the 3.1-mile course at the Troy Howard Middle School in 16:28 to win the Class C race.

Willingham won the Class A race with the best time of the day, 16:00, while Morris earned the Class B crown in 16:13 amid steadily deteriorating course conditions caused by a cold, steady rain that began midway through the event.

Western Maine schools swept the team titles, with Scarborough, Freeport and Merriconeag Waldorf School of Freeport winning in Classes A, B and C, respectively.

Class A

Willingham controlled the field for most of his race, only to be passed by Falmouth’s Bryce Murdick with less than a half-mile to go. But, Willingham, who failed to finish last year’s race because of a stress fracture, had enough of a kick left to retake the lead and sprint to the finish a half-second ahead of Murdick.

”He caught up to me with 600 (meters) to go and started to pull ahead but I saw the finish line and pushed back ahead,” said Willingham. “I didn’t want to look back. I was so scared about what I’d see.”

Scarborough, which lost to Falmouth by three points at the Western Maine regional, used tight pack running to score 73 points and win a three-way battle with the Yachtsmen (87) and Massabesic (89).

Windham (161) was fourth, while Eastern Maine champion Hampden tied Mt. Blue with 168 points, with Hampden winning the fifth spot via a sixth-runner tiebreaker.

Brunswick and Mt. Ararat finished 14th and 15th, respectively. The Dragons were led by John Murphy in 41st with a time of 17:26, while Matt Gott paced the Eagles in 42nd at 17:31.

In the girls race, Scarborough placed four runners in the top 18 to make it a sweep. Scarborough finished with 92 points, with Massabesic in second (96), followed by Hampden (145) and Brunswick (149).

Tessa Cassidy of Brunswick finished fourth overall with 19:29, while Mt. Ararat’s Katherine Leckbee was in fifth with a time of 19:33. Westbrook’s Halee Phelps was first in 19:10.

Mt. Ararat placed 11th in the 15-team field with 286 points.

Class B

Locked in a tight battle with Freeport’s Chandler Vincent, Morris let his rival take a brief lead fairly late in their race, only to retake control and surge to the finish line.

“I made the conscious decision to let him pass and let him think he beat me because it was toward the end and I was having trouble breathing — it might have been the cold or rain,” said Morris. “I let Chandler lead and coming up a gradual uphill, which I typically do very well at, I surged past him so I could lose him on the steep up and downhills and then keep surging through.”

Vincent’s second-place time of 16:26 helped Freeport — fourth at the Western Maine regional — win its first state championship. The Falcons totaled 57 points to best York (78), Cape Elizabeth (92), Greely (108) and Fryeburg Academy (123).

“I have been telling the boys that it is anybody’s race,” said Freeport coach Brian Berkemeyer. “All of the top five set personal records. When you have a team do that on the right day then it becomes their race.”

Erik Brobst finished ninth for Freeport in 17:02, while teammates Henry Jaques (16th, 17:18), Tyler Frey (18th, 17:22) and Liam Gallagher (30th, 17:48) ran well.

For Lisbon, Nicholas Harriman crossed the finish line in 17:17 for 13th overall.

In girls Class B, sopho- more Katherine Leggat-Barr and freshman Izzy Evans finished 1-2 to help Greely edge Yarmouth for its first state title in 13 years after falling to the Clippers by six points in their regional a week earlier.

Leggat-Barr, the Western Maine individual champion, established a comfortable lead midway through the race and finished 16 seconds ahead of her teammate, who improved on her fourthplace regional finish.

“She struggled a little bit with her foot last week so I’m so proud of the way she came in here today,” said Leggat-Barr of Evans. “She completely improved herself.”

Yarmouth was paced by three top-10 finishers in Anneka Murrin (sixth), Grace Cowles (eighth) and Abigail Hamilton (ninth).

Cape Elizabeth was third with 84 points, followed by three-time defending state champion and Eastern Maine titlist Mount Desert Island (129).

Morse, led by Maris Silvestri (45th, 21:44) and Ruth Nadeau (47th, 21:49), claimed 11th, while Freeport runner Lily Johnston was 21st in 20:37.

Class C

Toussaint battled George Stevens Academy sophomore John Hassett for the second straight week, this time using a 5:15 first mile to pull away.

Hassett finished 16 seconds back in 16:44, followed by Western Maine champion Ben Allen of Winthrop, Tucker Pierce of Merriconeag-Waldorf (17:10) and fifth-place Luke Thombs of Monmouth Academy.

Pierce’s effort and additional top-10 finishes by senior Nick Neveu (seventh, 17:30) and sophomore Zach Neveu (ninth, 17:45) helped Merriconeag win its first state title with 72 points, six better than second-place Orono.

Defending state champion Boothbay was third with 80 points, followed by Winthrop (118) and George Stevens (125).

If the Orono girls felt pressure entering Saturday’s Class C girls state championship race, it was hard to notice by merely watching the Red Riots run.

Not only did coach Lin White’s squad roll to its second straight state crown behind the 1-2 finishes of sophomores Hannah Steelman and Kassidy Dill, Orono posted the best score of the day regardless of class when all times in the Classes A, B and C were combined to determine qualifiers for next weekend’s New England championships.

Orono faced no such postrace scoring uncertainty, as the Red Riots placed five runners among the top 11 finishers to total 31 points, far ahead of runner-up Waynflete of Portland (71). George Stevens Academy was third with 86 points with Merriconeag-Waldorf School (113) and North Yarmouth Academy (145) next.

Merriconeag- Waldorf School was paced by Olivia Skillings (eighth, 20:30), Samantha Pierce (12th, 20:51) and Fiona Ahearne (13th, 20:59).

Girls teams earning spots in this weekend’s New Englands, which will be held in Manchester, Conn., are Orono, Yarmouth, Greely, Scarborough, Massabesic and Cape Elizabeth. Qualifying individually were Brunswick’s Cassidy and Tiffany Tanner and Mt. Ararat’s Leckbee.

On the boys side, Scarborough, Falmouth, Massabesic, Freeport, Windham and Merriconeag-Waldorf School will head to Connecticut.