The Boothbay Region High School Seahawks and Wiscasset Middle High School Wolverines’ combined cross country teams celebrated individual athletes Nov. 8. Seahawk Coach Nick Scott emceed the event and Wolverine Coach Josiah Winchenbach handed out athletes’ letters, pins and awards.

Seahawk freshman Laura Chapman and Seahawk senior Lucas Hardwick were named Most Valuable Players for their respective teams. Seahawk junior Ryan Clark and Seahawk senior Emerson Harris were awarded Most Improved Players and Seahawk senior Ava Schlosser and Seahawk junior Gryffin Kristan received the Coaches Awards. Wolverine sophomores Austin Trask and Emily Gilliam were honored with the Outstanding Teammate Award. Seahawk seniors Grace Campbell, Lucas Hardwick, Ava Schlosser and Emerson Harris were thanked and celebrated for their work and commitment to their teams.

As in years past, Scott gave a PowerPoint presentation noting each player’s strengths and the adversities some players successfully dealt with, then revealing each name. Nearly all athletes at the state championship ran personal records and Trask, Seahawk Marlowe Recoing-Tallen and Wolverine Bryan Gagnon broke the 20-minute barrier for the first time and Seahawk Dominick Dow and Seahawk Ryan Clark broke the 19-minute barrier.

In an email following the boys team’s performance at the state championship, Scott wrote about how fortunate he is to be a cross country coach especially for the Seahawks and Wolverines. Scott said,  “The sport tends to attract a certain type of student athlete – focused, hardworking, kind, and generally speaking wonderful human beings,” he wrote. “It is wonderful to see the hard work you put in over the season come to fruition in a big way. Just about a month ago we ran at the Festival of Champions on this same course and it is amazing just how much faster everyone ran.”