AUGUSTA -- She's not old enough to drive, but Maranacook freshman Abby Mace already reached two milestones this week. Thursday was her first day of high school. Friday, against runners from 22 other schools at the Laliberte Invitational, was Mace's first cross country victory.

Mace didn't just win her first varsity race, she dominated. She crossed the line 1 minute, 3.6 seconds ahead of Melody Lam, who finished second among the girls. Mace's time of 20 minutes, 2.4 seconds bettered the existing course record by more than a minute.

The race, held annually at Cony High School, is named after former Cony runner Scot Laliberte, who was killed in a car accident in 2000. Boys and girls run together in the race, and each team receives one combined score for its boys and girls teams.

Mt. Blue junior Kelton Cullenberg won the boys side in 16:33, while Morse's Jason Kaake was second and Cony's Luke Fontaine was third. Erskine junior Sam Seekins placed eighth.

Brunswick was third on total girls score and tied for second on the boys side, but finished first overall with a combined score of 796. Mt. Blue was second at 801, followed by Falmouth (869), Lewiston (870), Maranacook (931) and Medomak Valley (982).

Led by Mace, Maranacook took first among girls scores, while Lewiston, with five of the top 17 overall finishers, easily won the boys side. A total of nearly 500 runners from 23 schools were at the race.

Mace, who started cross country as a sixth-grader, said she had run parts of the course before Friday's race.

"It was my first race in high school, and I just wanted to go out and have fun, and try to finish in top 10, do my best and mostly focusing on having fun," Mace said.

Mace, who finished 55th overall, was the only female in the top 80. Following Mace and Lam among the girls were Maranacook's Taylor Burr (21:29.5), Brunswick's Sarah Croston (21:56.1) and Falmouth's Erin Morris (22:09.1). Race organizer Tom Wells, the former cross country coach at Cony, doesn't remember a freshman winning the race before.

"That's quite a task," Wells said. "Abby doesn't surprise me that she won the race. She's pretty special."

Unlike Cullenberg, who said his plan was to stay with the pack for half the race and then break away, Mace said she didn't have a specific attack plan.

"To be honest, I didn't really have a strategy," Mace said. "I thought that if there were girls ahead of me, I'd just try to stay up with them. But then when it didn't seem like there were any girls ahead of me, I just focused on running a good race and trying to stay up with some of the boys."

Wells said the Laliberte race is more about camaraderie and running than it is about winning, and in those senses, he felt the races were a big success.

"I get more parents coming up to me of kids who finished in the last half of the race than parents (whose kids finished) in the first half," Wells said. "They really like what they see, especially parents who have never been involved with the sport before."

Matt DiFilippo -- 861-9243

mdifilippo@centralmaine.com