Lake Region's Sam Laverdiere, Portland's Aran Johnson and Waynflete's Pi Crosby cruise to regional wins

CUMBERLAND — Aran Johnson has always been a hard worker. It was just a matter of how much time he spent 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 5, 1 mile. 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 a key part of Portland’s regional and state championship team last yearand finished 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 obtained its top three runners, Johnson made a change. He still did his work, but he also ran more.

The combination of power and mileage gave Johnson confidence that he could pull away with a final kick, he said. His winning time was 79 seconds faster than a year ago.

Woods said he had nothing saved for next week, when the top runners and teams return to Twin Brook for the state championship races.

“I went all out,” Woods said, adding, “It’s good to know what you can do on a course.”

The top runners and teams 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 really couldn’t have done it without him,” said Laverdiere, who hoped to run under 16 minutes and attempt to become Maine’s all-time best at Twin Brook’s 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.

Laverdière was not able to train as much as he wanted in the summer. He broke his collarbone while playing a game of Capture the Flag at an Acadia running camp in July.

“The bad thing about being a distance runner is that you’re pretty skinny, so there’s not a lot of cushioning,” Laverdière said, patting his right shoulder. “I had surgery within a week or two and it was about seven weeks before I could train again.”

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

Gilbert said several Freeport runners struggled with illness, but Saturday’s results prepare the team well for the state meet.

“We always think we are going to win. We always want to win and we always want to do our best,” said Gilbert.

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

Crosby had a big lead early. Moments after he finished, you heard him say, “It’s hard to run on your own.”

Crosby later noted that leading all the way “requires a different kind of mental strength than just running on 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 finished as the top runners 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.