AUGUSTA -- Wade Davis and Magen Ellis took early leads and cruised to wins. The Monmouth Academy girls, however, had a fight on their hands.

Davis and Ellis, both of Hall-Dale, easily won the individual titles at Saturday's Mountain Valley Conference Cross Country Championship at the University of Maine at Augusta. Davis won the boys race by 10 seconds and Ellis won the girls race by well over a minute.

Meanwhile, Monmouth didn't know it had won the girls race until it was announced at the award ceremony following the meet.

The Mustangs captured their sixth straight title, scoring 59 points to beat Lisbon, which finished second with 66.

"We were really nervous; we knew Lisbon had a really great team," said Monmouth's Kersten Grenier, who finished second with a time of 22 minutes, 1 seconds. "We didn't do that math out. (The streak) motivates us so much."

Saturday was a disappointing day for the Winthrop boys, who hoped to win the MVC title for the first time since 1983. The Ramblers had two of the top three finishers (Danny Soltan was second, Tor O'Brien third) but fell just four points short of Lisbon.

"It's disappointing," said Soltan, who finished with a time of 17:25. "But we have two more weeks to go."

The Monmouth girls won on the strength of three top-10 finishes. Grenier was joined in the top 10 by Melanie McInnis, who finished fourth at 22:50, and Kristen Freeman, who was sixth at 23:02. The Mustangs also got a boost from Devon Ayer, who finished 21st.

Normally the Mustangs' fifth or sixth finisher, according to head coach Rick Amero, Ayer was Monmouth's fourth finisher.

"Devon had a very good race for us and beat out some key Hall-Dale and Lisbon kids," Amero said. "This was a great race. Lisbon and Hall-Dale ran great races."

Ellis jumped out to an early lead and was never challenged. The defending conference champ, Ellis finished with a time of 20:44.

"My game plan was to win," Ellis said. "I wanted to use the down hills, the down hills are really key here. And I'm a pretty good uphill runner and that is key here. I tried to charge up the hills and hopefully have somewhat of a kick left."

Ellis didn't need a kick; she finished 1:27 ahead of Grenier.

Davis, meanwhile, jumped out to an early lead and held of Soltan and O'Brien.

"I thought I'd be running with Danny and Tor so I wanted to be in the front pack," Davis said. "I hoped to be in the top three, so I'm pretty happy."

Soltan got the start he wanted, with someone taking an early lead, but he was never able to make a move to pass Davis.

"Wade just led from start to finish and I was never able to close the gap," Soltan said. "I should have been able to, but in the last half-mile, he pulled away."

The Monmouth boys finished third with 74 points, behind a sixth-place finish from Matt McCollett and an eighth-place finish by Kevin Desmond. Hall-Dale finished fourth.

Scott Martin -- 621-5618

smartin@centralmaine.com