CUMBERLAND — Aran Johnson has always been a hard worker. It was just a matter of how much time he was he spending on, well, work, versus how much he could spend training for cross country.

Saturday at Twin Brook Recreation Area, the Portland High senior, lobsterman and Long Island resident showed what a summer of focused training can do when he sprinted away from Ellis Woods of Deering and Henri Rivard of Marshwood over the final portion of the 3.1-mile course to win the Class A South championship in 16 minutes, 22.98 seconds.

Woods (16:26.89) and Rivard (16:34.80) soon followed.

“That’s what 40 miles a week can do for you,” Johnson said.

Johnson was an important part of Portland’s regional and state championship team last year, finishing 12th at the regional meet as Portland’s fourth runner, and 25th at the state meet as the Bulldogs’ fifth scorer. But because of his summer job hauling lobster pots – he has his own boat – he had never fully committed to distance training. Knowing that Portland had graduated its top three runners, Johnson made a change. He still worked his job, but he also ran more.

The combination of strength and mileage made Johnson confident that he could pull away with a finishing kick, he said. His winning time was 79 seconds faster than a year ago.

Woods said he wasn’t saving anything for next week, when the top runners and teams will return to Twin Brook for the state championship races.

“I was going all out,” Woods said, adding that, “it’s good to know what you can do on a course.”

The top runners and teams will return to Twin Brook on Saturday for the state championship meet. Nine teams in Class A, seven in B and eight in C qualified, along with any individual runners who were in the top 30.

Portland won the Class A team title with 43 points, followed by Scarborough (70). Portland had a classic second group after Johnson, with Henry Morrison, Charlie Jacques, Cole Smith and Owen Blades finishing in places 9-12.

Lake Region senior Sam Laverdiere, the defending Class B South and state champion, posted the fastest overall time of 16:06.51 to win the Class B race, well ahead of York’s Aidan Ring (16:36.64).

“I give all the glory to God. I truly could not have done it without him,” said Laverdiere, who was hoping to run under 16 minutes and take a crack at the all-time Maine best at Twin Brook of 15:43, run by Brunswick’s Will Geoghegan in 2009. The boys’ course record is 15:32, set by Donn Cabral of Glastonbury (Conn.) at the 2007 New England meet.

Laverdiere did not get to train as much as he wanted in the summer. He broke his collarbone while playing a game of capture the flag at a running camp in Acadia in July.

“The poor thing about being a distance runner, you’re pretty skinny, so there’s not much cushion there,” Laverdiere said as he patted his right shoulder. “I had surgery within a week or two and it took about seven weeks to get back to training.”

Three-time defending Class B champion Freeport continued to look strong in taking the regional title with 57 points, led by Alex Gilbert (16:41.29) in third and Conner Smith (16:51.50) in fourth.

Gilbert said several of Freeport’s runners have been battling illness, but Saturday’s results sets up the team well for the state meet.

“We’re always thinking that we’re going to win. We always want to win and we always want to do our best,” Gilbert said.

In Class C, Waynflete’s Pi Crosby – a resident of Peaks Island – easily won with a time of 17:21.99, more than a half minute ahead of Dirigo’s William Morris (17:52.26).

Crosby had a big lead early. Moments after he finished, he could be heard saying, “it’s tough to run on your own.”

Crosby noted later that leading the whole way, “requires a different kind of mental strength than just running off other people’s backs.”

Dirigo won the team title with 84 points, with Winthrop (138) and Maranacook (140) rounding out the top three teams. Nine teams had their top runner finish before Winthrop’s Sam St. Germain (10th) joined teammate Alfie Cognata (third). Dirigo’s Stetson Thurston was 11th, and the Cougars’ Hayden Robbins was 15th.