Courtesy of Brian Beard

Last Saturday, the men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Maine State Championships on their home course, earning both team and individual trophies. The women won the meet for the first time since 2007, edging out the University of Maine and Bates College in the 6k race. The men finished in third place behind Bates College and the University of Maine, led by Seamus McDonough ’27 who won the 8k race.

Coming off of its Colby-Bates-Bowdoin (CBB) win, the women’s team was excited to race with both larger and more experienced teams on its home course. Through maintaining a pack mentality, the team secured five of the top 12 finishers in Saturday’s race with a score of 35 points. The University of Maine finished with 44 points, and Bates was close behind with 51 points.

The Polar Bears had the fourth through sixth place runners, led by Angelina Hickey ’28 with a time of 22:06.22, followed closely by Laura White ’29 and Kaylee Hale ’28, with times of 22:06.53 and 22:15.78, respectively. Cam Meyer ’28 finished in eighth place overall with a time of 22:27.70, and Tori Bacall ’26 crossed the line at 22:45.79 as the fifth Bowdoin finisher.

Given that the CBB meet was underdistance, White was a little nervous but excited to compete in Saturday’s longer race.

“I had never done a 6k before, so going into the meet, the goal was to pace the first half of the race until two miles, and then we’d kick it in high gear more,” White said. “I wasn’t really focused on time at all…. It was just to stick with the team, have a pack of Bowdoin jerseys together and pick off Bates [runners].”

In a race of over a hundred athletes, it can be easy to get lost in the crowd. White mentioned how having a strong group of Polar Bears in the front made a huge difference in her performance overall.

“It’s really exciting and very special. I never had that in high school,” White said. “From the gun, everyone’s super excited, so we’re all trying to get to the front. But [Meyer] was in my ear, and she said, ‘Don’t worry, Laura, I’m here.’”

Head Coach Ben Raphelson was pleased with how the women’s team executed their packing and pace strategy. After the first lap or so, he was confident that the team would win the meet based on the group of white jerseys close to the front.

“We were pretty secure in our placing, especially on the women’s side, for most of the race.… Having that group of five hanging out in the top ten from the time the gun went off until they finished—that was pretty secure,” Raphelson said. “I think [Bacall], who was our fifth [finisher], mentioned after the race that she could see she had four teammates ahead of her and she was doing pretty well.”

After cheering on the rest of her teammates across the finish line, White recalled the moment when she and her teammates found out they were the Maine State Champions.

“We were taking a photo with Joan Benoit Samuelson and [Raphelson] is taking our photo, and he goes, ‘Hey, you guys won,’” White said. “I think he got our reactions on camera, and then I was like, ‘Wait, we actually won? Like, we did it?’ Yeah, it was exciting.”

Courtesy of Brian Beard

The men’s team had 66 points to land itself in third place behind Bates with 28 points and the University of Maine with 48 points. McDonough finished in 25:46.75, followed by fellow team captain Ashton Dunlap ’26 at 26:32.26. Will Downs ’28 came in 15th with a time of 26:40.27, and first years Ryan Boulanger ’29 and Elliot Fontaine ’29 rounded out the men’s scorers.

In its first 8k race of the season, the team was really focused on the experience of racing the longer distance instead of the results.

Even in his second cross country season, Downs acknowledged the adjustment to running an 8k after the shorter racing distances of track.

“We all just wanted to start getting used to the feeling of running that longer distance,” Downs said. “It is an adjustment. It’s almost five miles…. We have a really promising [first year] class, which is really cool.”

Raphelson was impressed with the effort and results from the team’s newest class as well.

“I guess [there were] just two first years in the top five, but probably four or five in the top 10 or something like that,” Raphelson said. “The last time we raced an 8k on this course was NESCACs last year.… Only four people [who] raced on Saturday raced it the year before. For how young and frankly inexperienced the group was in the 8k, it was a really good start.”

Both teams have a couple of weekends to train before they travel to Hopkinton, N.H. for the Hopkinton Cross Country Festival on October 10.