The high school cross country season will end Saturday for half the teams in the state at regional meets in Belfast and Cumberland.

Fifty percent of boys and girls teams in each class qualify for next Saturday's state meet at Leavitt High School in Turner. In addition, the top 20 individual finishers in Class A and B and the top 30 in Class C qualify for the state meet.

With the addition of Bangor, Brewer and Hampden Academy to the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference this fall, Saturday's Eastern A meet in Belfast features the same teams that competed in the KVAC meet last week.

"The good thing for us is there are no questions anymore to what Bangor, Brewer and Hampden have," Mt. Blue coach Kelley Cullenberg said.

The Mt. Blue boys finished second to Lewiston last week while the girls were third behind Brunswick and Brewer. Cullenberg is looking for improvement from both teams, if not a championship.

"We can have as a goal to win for the boys," she said. "Obviously it's a longshot. Our next goal is to decrease the amount of points between us and Lewiston."

The course at Troy Middle School in Belfast is relatively flat and one of the fastest in the state, necessitating tactical change.

"It's like running on a track instead of running on hills," Cullenberg said. "The first mile is extremely fast. If you want to maintain contact, you kind of have to go with that."

The Waterville girls and boys will be looking for state berths in Class B, but Saturday's field will be expanded with a number of strong northern teams. Last week, the girls and boys teams each finished fourth at the KVAC Class B meet.

"I think we will qualify, but I don't think it will be an absolute," Waterville coach Koren Coughlin said. "The boys will have to run their best.

A couple of rookies have helped the Purple Panthers this season. Freshman Courtney Williams runs third on the team while sophomore Mike Nelson is the second runner for the boys.

Unlike Belfast, Twins Brooks in Cumberland is a hilly demanding course that can knock a minute or so off the top times.

"This is like our home course," Madison coach Bob Hagopian said. "A third of it is in the field."

The Madison girls placed fourth in last week's Mountain Valley conference meet run on the hilly University of Maine at Augusta course, but Hagopian thinks they can improve on that with more runners in the field.

"We have two front runners (Sarah Kirkwood and Danielle Hebert) and our third, fourth and fifth runners aren't that bad," he said. "I think we're going to surprise a few teams down there."

Gary Hawkins -- 621-5638

ghawkins@centralmaine.com