Harriman, who raced to a first-place finish with a time of 17 minutes, 58.7 seconds at the fifth annual MVC Mid-Season cross country boys’ race on a 3.1-mile course behind the Augusta Civic Center, looked as if he might continue running to the nearest restaurant in the state’s capitol.

“Honestly, I didn’t feel that good,” Harriman said. “ I didn’t eat enough in between lunch and the race. Basically, I just had a summer cramp the whole time. It is going to be steak after tonight.”

But a lack of sustenance didn’t stop the lanky runner from finishing at the top of the heap.

“It’s been four years since I have been to this, and I hadn’t won yet, and just the desire to win was keeping me going,” Harriman said.

In the boys’ 3.1-mile team race, the Winthrop Ramblers came out on top with 42 points, followed by Boothbay (57), Lisbon (69), Carrabec (101), St. Dom’s (111), Hall-Dale (124) and Madison (173)

Many of the runners, including Harriman, gave the the course a high-rating.

“It is a beautiful course,” Harriman said. “It has got multiple terrains. It has multiple levels of elevation. You have steep hills and gradual hills, and flats.”

“He’s run very well this season so far,” Lisbon coach Jeremy Williams said of Harriman. “He had a stride we talked about this week. He ran what he wanted to do and he did what he was supposed to do. Very happy at what he did.”

Lisbon’s Jordan Cole (18:57.5) took fifth and Mike Scholetterbeck (19:22.4) raced in at 10th.

Right behind Harriman was Winthrop’s top runner junior Jacob Hickey, who finished second with a time of 18:09.7.

I just tried to stay on the tail of Nick Harriman,” Hickey said. “He’s a very fast runner. I just tried to stay on his tail and see how things played out.”

Wil Vance (18:29.1) finished third and teammate Jesse Stevens (19:18.8) took ninth to help give the Ramblers the edge.

“Very impressed with his (Hickey’s) performance,” Winthrop coach Ed Van Tassel. “As a an eighth-grader, he ran a road race in Winthrop. I had seen his time. He played soccer his freshman year. I just talked to him all year long. I said, ‘You should really think about coming out.’ So he came out last year, and is kind of learning the ropes and had a great summer of training.”

St. Dom’s Diego Villamarin (19:26.2) finished 11th and Dirigo’s Keenan Martin (20:03.6) took 15th. Gaelan Boyle-Wight (22:29.2) was Telstar’s top runner, finishing 34th.

Seahawks hold off Saints

St. Dom’s gave Boothbay a run for its money in the girls’ race.

Boothbay finished first with 29 points, followed by St. Dom’s (38) and Monmouth (53).

The Saints’ Sydney Sirois (21:48.8) was close behind Boothbay front-runner Faith Blethen (21:08.9), who took first place. Ella Brown (22:29.4) came in fourth for the Saints.

“I pushed pretty hard today,” Sirois said “I felt better today than at the past meets, and I really wanted it. I wanted to get as close to first as I possibly could.”

“I felt pretty tired,” Brown said. “It has got some good hills. Just an off day, but it was still a good effort.”

Saints coach Josh Brown was impressed with his two runners in the girls’ race.

“It was a good finish.There’s good competition in this conference,” Brown said. “We were looking forward to it.

“I thought Sydney had a very good race, Ella has had better, but not every day is a great day. They resurfaced a good bit of the course so I think it may have slowed them down a bit — made it a little soft.”

Telstar Senior Carla Boyle-Wight (28:24.6) finished in the top 10 in seventh.

“I was just ready,” Boyle-Wight said of her top-10 finish. “I love this course. I thought I hated it, but I like it.”

Dave Leclerc, who coaches track and field at Telstar and was standing in for coach Willow Ochtera, said, “Carla raced well today. She really liked the course. She said she loved the hill over here. She’s been training hills this season. It fell in for her today.”

Monmouth’s Shayna Frost finished with a time of 23:25.2 for an impressive fifth-place finish and Lisbon Bree Sautter (23.56.9) was sixth. Jada Choate (24:39.6) was 10th for Winthrop.

Boothbay’s Blethen is a freshman, which makes her top performance even more remarkable.

“It’s a really nice course. It is a beautiful back to the woods,” Blethen said. “It is fun to run.”

“She is really unbelievable,” Boothbay athletic director Allan Crocker said. “This is her third, what, her third high school race, and she finished first in the mid-season race. She’s pretty special.

“We had Sophia Thayer who ran for us for years. I didn’t think we’d see a runner as good as her. A year later, we have Faith, which is nice. Faith is the total package. She’s a great kid, a great athlete, a great student. She’s type of kid you want to fill your school with.”