The start of the boys race at the MVC championships at UMaine-Augusta. Nathan Fournier/Sun Journal

AUGUSTA — Dirigo’s William Morris and Boothbay’s Karen Higgins jumped out to the lead at the gun and didn’t look back at Saturday’s Mountain Valley Conference championships at the University of Maine at Augusta.

Morris won the boys race with a time of 19 minutes, 07.7 seconds, just under 23 seconds ahead of Winthrop’s Alfie Cognata (19:34.5). Higgins won the girls race 20:57.7, a little more than 1:45 faster than Madison’s Leah Harper (22:41.0).

Morris and Higgins were named MVC runners of the year.

“I feel like I did pretty good,” Morris said. “I went out hard and just tried to hang on to the end.”

Higgins, a sophomore, said this is her favorite course.

“I don’t know, I just like how it’s more like a cross country course,” Higgins said. “My freshman year I had a PR here.”

Boothbay/Wiscasset’s Karen Higgins crosses the finish line to win the girls MVC cross country championship at UMaine-Augusta. Nathan Fournier/Sun Journal

Boothbay/Wiscasset’s AJ Crocker (19:46.2), Lisbon’s Sam Liudvinatis (20:05.8) and Madison’s Craig Paine (20:12.7) rounded out the top five in the boys race. Boothbay/Wiscasset’s Laura Chapman (22:59.0), Dirigo’s McKenzie Boyle (24:11.4), and Madison’s Bryanna Hagopian (24:12.7) were the other top-five finishers in the girls race.

The two-mile mark was the turning point of the boys race, Morris said.

“I felt I had a little bit left at the two miles,” Morris said. “So I took third mile (with) everything left in the tank.”

Cognata said he didn’t have the stamina to keep up with Morris.

“After it got up to the green hill, that one that probably goes up for maybe 800 whole meters,” Cognata said. “I don’t know why, but I was kind of starting to break down.  I think that at this point in time, he is a more fit person than I am, and I’m going to increase the mileage. Hopefully, I’ll strive to be a better runner.”

It didn’t take long for Higgins to separate from the pack in the girls’ race, said runner-up Harper, who added she was proud of her performance..

“Well, I saw there’s a little loop in the woods, just a little one and I knew then, I’m like, ‘oh, she’s about to take this turn,'” Harper said. “I’m like, ‘oh, she’s going to be way ahead of me.’ I knew about half a mile in the race.”

Higgins said she would rather have the competition.

“When I’m by myself, it does tend to make me go a little slower,” Higgins said. “I do like having competition at the bigger meets. Sometimes it does make me go a little slower, but it’s also nice to see other people.”

Boothbay/Wiscasset swept the team championships. The girls won with 38 points and the boys won with 67.

“These kids are exceptionally proud,” Boothbay/Wiscasset coach Nick Scott said. “It’s a slightly different story for both teams. The girls have been pretty strong all year long and so it wasn’t necessarily unexpected, but to be where they’re at this year when you’re looking at the end of last year and then kind of the leaps and bounds that those ladies have made over the course of 12 months. Personal PRs are through the roof and they’ve really positioned themselves as a pretty strong Class C school.

“For the boys, we barely had five guys coming back and so we had an infusion of some new talent and then returners who were really stepping up their game. So for them to have even been in the conversation of being where they are right now was kind of far-fetched a year or so (ago).”

Dirigo’s Willam Morris comes to the finish line. He took the boys race at the MVC Championships with a time of 19:07.7. Nathan Fournier/Sun Journal

The Dirigo girls took second via a tiebreaker with Madison. Each team had 84 points. Maranacook came in fourth with 86 points followed by Richmond with 108. Spruce Mountain came in sixth (113) and Winthrop (171) seventh.

Lisbon took second in the boys race with 69 points, followed by Dirigio (71), Winthrop (91) and Maranacook (109).

The course used a slightly different configuration from the conference’s midseason race earlier this season at UMaine-Augusta.

Meet director Randy Easter said the course was set up by the university, and the old route might have been a quarter-mile shorter than the normal 3.1-mile distance. But many athletes and coaches said Saturday’s course was a quarter-mile longer according to their watches.

“Yeah, I think that is definitely legit,” Scott said. “Everyone’s GPS is showing about a quarter of a mile longer. Once we realized that in the boys race, the conversation around the girls was, ‘we’re not going to really worry about time today.’ Let’s just go out there and fight for position, which is kind of the plan anyways in a championship race.”