Boothbay Region High School Seahawks and Wiscasset Middle High School Wolverines have joined forces once again for the Boothcasset cross country team. With the season beginning officially Sept. 2 in Brunswick, the “Seawolves” already got their feet wet in Waldoboro with the annual Panther Two-Miler Aug. 27. Coach Nick Scott said he has a roster of 20 athletes, 13 boys and seven girls, and the season is going to be exciting.

“Our biggest objectives are that we have to be healthy and focused,” said Scott. “If we can maintain those two things, we should be doing very well.”

Winthrop High School and Monmouth Academy, both Mountain Valley Conference teams, are strong this year, so conferences will be competitive, said Scott. State championships will also be competitive with Penobscot Valley Conference's George Stevens Academy at the top of Maine's Class C teams. Maine Coast Waldorf School is not doing well on paper, but historically puts a good team up every year, so they are sure to put up some competition, he said.

The Seawolves were shorthanded for the Panther Two-Miler and some athletes were running with colds, so the preseason event is not a good gauge of how the team is starting off, said Scott. Seniors Gryffin Kristan and Dominick Dow were missing which was a shame, he said.

“So, we were missing two of our top six, but Bryan Gagnon had a very good race. He was leaps and bounds ahead of where he was last year. And it was Peyton Blagdon's very first race ever in cross country. He's grown up playing soccer, but he's always been a really good track athlete and … is really going to give us a boost.”

Scott said losing three solid seniors last year – Ava Schlosser, Grace Campbell and Emerson Harris – will prove a challenge, but all returning athletes have shown a lot of improvement over the offseason.

“I think that could be really good for us. We'll see how things unfold as the season goes on. It should be a fun season.”

Results

Boys: Bryan Gagnon, 21st, 12:02.58; Payton Blagdon and Austin Trask, 26th and 27th, 12:35.02 and 12:39.22; Ryan Clark, 33rd, 12:53; and Ross Gaffney, 61st, 19:19.27.

Girls: Maddie Anderson, 16th, 14:56.64; Julia Truesdell, 19th, 15:16.61; Emma Markowitz, 47th, 19:28.7; and Maddie Orchard and Sarah Harris, 52nd and 53rd, 21:14.3 and 21:22.4.