Scarborough senior Tristram Coffin races at a cross country meet during the 2017 season. Coffin is the Red Storm’s top returner this fall and hopes to lead Scarborough to its 10th Class A state championship since 2001. (Derek Veilleux photo)

While high school football reigns supreme during the fall across the state, Scarborough residents often find the top athletes in the area around this time perusing back trails or grass fields, running at a pace that’s incomprehensible pace to the human eye.

That unfathomable pace has helped make the Scarborough boys’ cross country team the top program in the state over the last decade.

Expect that trend to continue this fall.

The Red Storm are the defending Class A champions and have won nine of the past 16 titles. Scarborough has won their first two meets of the season, the Southwestern Maine Activities Association (SMAA) relays on Aug. 31 and a league meet at Falmouth High School on Sept. 6.

The Red Storm return four of their top five runners from a season ago, including brothers Tristram and Connor Coffin. Tristram Coffin finished fourth at the state championship in 2018 and expects to contend for the individual title this season. Connor Coffin was 12th at the meet.

Also in the mix for the Red Storm are sophomore Zachary Barry and junior Erik LoSacco, and have already shown an improvement in fitness in 2019.

At an SMAA regular season meet at Falmouth High School on Friday, Barry ran to a second-place finish, completing the three-mile course in 16 minutes, 49 seconds, with LoSacco 14 seconds back in third in a time of 17:03.

Scarborough won the six-team league meet by putting five runners in the top 15 overall to finish with 36 points.

In the process, the Red Storm defeated league rival Falmouth by 20 points. Falmouth figures to be Scarborough’s most formidable foe in the conference this fall, and the Red Storm was able to pull off the win without the services of Connor Coffin, who opted to sit out the meet in favor of keeping his legs fresh for bigger meets late in the season.

With Barry, LoSacco and the Coffin brothers, the Red Storm have the most dangerous top four in the state, regardless of class.

Scarborough has been a pillar of success in the cross country community, and have finished outside of the top five at the state championships just once since 2003. The Red Storm have racked up plenty of postseason hardware over the years, and that will likely continue this fall.

Sports writer Sam Bonsey can be reached by email at sbonsey@journaltribune.com.