Northern Maine Class A Regional XC Championship Preview


Flo50 #7 Hampden Academy is the team favorite to win the Northern Maine Regional. The Broncos are coming off their finest performance of the year as they won the KVAC title by 24 points over Flo50 #10 and cross town rival Bangor. Hampden had four of the top eight finishers a week ago, en route to 18:23 average.

Don't count of the Rams though, they finished ahead of Hampden at FOC, and based off the fastest 5k's on the year are ranked ahead of the Broncos. The Rams are a young team with two freshman amongst their top five harriers.

Mt Ararat placed third in the KVAC Championship, the Eagles like Bangor have two freshman in the top five. They have plenty of room for improvement on Saturday, as #2 runner Lucas Bergeron finished 4th for the team a week ago.

Brunswick is rounding into form, the Dragons finished just four points back of cross town rival Mt Ararat a week ago. They don't have a front runner but there was only 26 second between their top four runners a week ago.

Other teams looking to continue onto the state meet are Mt Blue, Cony & Lewiston. The Cougars finished 5th a week ago, 5 points in front of the Rams. The Blue Devils were 7th at KVAC's finishing seven points in front of Brewer, who will be looking to pull the upset.


Individually Flo50 #7 Lisandro Berry-Gaviria revenged his third place at the Mt Blue relays as he won the KVAC Championship last week by 11 seconds over Flo50 #8 Gabe Coffey of Bangor. In a tactical race Berry-Gaviria made the decisive move with a mile to go as he clocked 17:05.1. With a different layout this week, expect the race to be very close.

Berry-Gaviria has been tough to beat this fall as he has seven individual wins to his record, he'll be looking to add an eighth an possibly run under 16 minutes on the fast track at Belfast. His personal best on Belfast came at the state meet last year where he ran 16:27.

Coffey has been much improved this fall, and has a best of 16:08 for 5k to his name. He ran that time at FOC on the same Belfast course he will be compete on Saturday. Coffey has four individual wins this fall including one over Berry-Gaviria over two miles.

Wyatt Lord of Hampden Academy (Flo50 #9) will be one to watch, Lord was third last week at KVAC's on a course that he's not very fond of. He runs much better at Belfast evidenced by his 16:14 at FOC, and 15:51 personal best on the course. Lord placed third in the regional a year ago, and will be looking for a higher finish on Saturday.

Oxford Hills senior Dominic Sclafani will be looking to rebound after his fourth place effort at KVAC, he pushed the pace after a slow opening mile, and it seems to sap him of his usual strength late into the race. Sclafani has a had a strong fall, he has a personal best of 16:37 from FOC to his credit, and two individual wins.

Others to keep an eye on are Grahme Sokoloski of Hampden Academy, Abbas Muktar of Lewiston, Russell Allen of Edward Little, Caleb Richardson of Cony & Connor Glowa a freshman from Hampden Academy to compete for top ten finishes.