Charlie Collins entered the Class A North cross country regional final with his team on his mind.
The Hampden senior was seeded to win, but was more focused on his team’s results as the Broncos had a chance to earn the A North team title.
“I have to say that I am more invested in the team aspect of getting the team wins more than my own success,” Collins said. “Seeing them all perform incredibly, there’s no feeling like this.”
Collins ran a 16:00.86 to win the A North individual title, and his Broncos won the team title with a total score of 41 points.
“This is the fastest race of the year for us,” Collins said. “A lot of us performed to the level we wanted to, and I was personally short of what I wanted to do, but we won and that’s all that matters.”
For the first mile, Collins and Mt. Blue’s Cyrus Evans went out together in the front of the pack.
From the mile marker on, Collins ran alone, trying to speed up after what he called a slow first mile.
“Cyrus is a great runner. Going through the mile at what we did, it was a little slower than I would’ve liked,” Collins said. “It’s really tough running fast by yourself and it’s all a mental game and I have to work on that.”
Collins came around the final turn and into the final straightaway alone, winning easily.
Evans finished in second place with a time of 16:35, followed by Harrison Shain of Hampden (16:39), Eli Palmer of Brunswick (16:45) and Miles Logan of Brunswick (16:47).
Brunswick finished runner-up with a team total of 72, followed by Camden Hills in third with 116 points.
In the Class B race, Sam York of Mount Desert Island won the regional title with a time of 16:36.
“I was really hoping for the (win), so it went well,” York said. “It was a crazy race for us three and it was insane at the end. It was really fun. I was expecting that. I love racing those guys.”
Ethan Road of John Bapst finished in second place (16:45), followed by Ephraim Willey of Caribou (16:53).
John Bapst won the team title with a score of 40 points, followed by MDI (63) and Ellsworth (95).
Bucksport’s William Hileman turned on the jets in the second half of the Class C North regional championship and won with ease with a time of 16:14.26.
Hileman wanted to get revenge on Kaleb Colson of Sumner, who beat him last week at the Penobscot Valley Conference championship.
“At PVCs I didn’t have my best day and my rival Kaleb got me last week,” Hileman said. “I thought that I couldn’t let that happen again so this was for revenge. From when the gun went off to the finish, I was in survival mode. I didn’t care how it goes I just wanted to get it done. I was not expecting it but it felt so good and I am really happy.”
Ethan Linscott of Lee Academy finished in third place (17:19), followed by Ren Salisbury of Sumner (17:23) and Owen Beane of Orono (17:36).
George Stevens Academy came away with the team title in C North with 60 points. In second place was Sumner (82), followed by Limestone (102).
