AUGUSTA – Chase Brown seems to be constantly chasing Matt McClintock.
A junior at Boothbay Region, Brown finished second to McClintock, a junior at Madison, at all three championship meets last fall. He also finished behind McClintock in two regular-season meets this year.
Brown didn’t chase anyone Saturday.
Brown pulled away in the final stretch to beat McClintock by 10 seconds and win the Mountain Valley Conference title at the University of Maine at Augusta. Brown finished in 16 minutes, 22 seconds, and led Boothbay to the boys’ team title.
“It was just a good race and it’s fun racing him,” Brown said. “It definitely feels good to win.”
Boothbay took two of the top four spots and three of the top 10 to edge Monmouth, 45-49. Telstar was third with 85 points, followed by Lisbon (95) and Winthrop (113).
St. Dominic placed four runners in the top 10 on its way to the girls’ title, beating Winthrop 41-44. Monmouth (65) was third and Lisbon (70) was fourth. Sophia Thayer of Boothbay finished in 21:23 to win the individual title.
McClintock won the MVC, Western Class C and Class C state titles last fall; Brown was second in all three races. McClintock also beat Brown in a regular-season meet at Wiscasset and at the Festival of Championships in Belfast.
But on Saturday, McClintock was never able to create any separation from Brown, who won the final sprint.
“I didn’t feel good through the entire race,” McClintock said. “It didn’t start off well and it kind of went down from there. I just tried to hold on and hope he would break at the end.”
“The lead was changing, we were surging in front of each other, and in the last 600 yards or so, we both started sprinting,” said Brown. “It was the last 400 yards I got a little bit on him.”
Brown’s teammate, Nate Schwehm, was fourth (17:54) and Tom Brown was ninth. For the Mustangs, Pat McInnis and Kevin Desmond were fourth and fifth; Matt McInnis was eighth.
In the girls’ race, Thayer went unchallenged, finishing nearly a minute ahead of Anna Doyle of Winthrop.
“I tried to stay with (Thayer) because I know she’s a pretty good athlete and I kept with her for a while,” said Doyle, who finished in 22:09. “But on the long, grassy hill out there, she just powered up it. I lost her and I just couldn’t catch up.”
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