enlarge Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Runners take off in the Class A boys’ race at the cross country state championships in Cumberland. Cheverus swept the boys’ and girls’ team titles.

CUMBERLAND — His nickname was Fat Kid. Or Tubby, Chubby, or whatever other variation came to mind.

Max Bulger says he understood.

"I was never a skinny kid. I ate too much."

He couldn't walk by a Cheez-It box without sticking his hand inside. Again. And again. He gobbled jelly beans and had a fondness for potato chips.

He joined the Cheverus High cross country team his freshman year, and people noticed he was the Old English Sheepdog puppy among the Whippets and Salukis. Saturday afternoon, cross country fans noticed something different: now a senior, the Fat Kid had morphed into the Big Guy.

Cheverus beat Scarborough, winning its first state title since 2001. Jack Terwilliger and Taylor Dundas finished in the top 10. Andrew Snyder and Tim Woods were in the second 10. The fifth and last scoring runner for the Stags was Bulger.

When it counted most, Bulger scored his first points in a state meet. He earned the hugs afterward. He ran for the spot waiting for him in the team photo. Whatever nervous energy he had at the start of the race had been replaced by an excitement he hadn't felt before.

"He was our anchor," said Cheverus Coach Bruce Bickford. "The most consistent runner we had all year."

It was Bickford who pulled the fat nicknames out of the air when he saw Bulger. Not to belittle or to goad, but to encourage. "I used it," said Bulger. "I changed what I ate."

Dried fruits replaced the worst of his temptations. He changed his workouts. He's lost more than 30 pounds over two years, and people did double-takes when they saw him.

He's 5-foot-8 and now weighs 165 pounds. Still, he doesn't look like most other cross country runners. Put the weight back on, and you could imagine him playing right guard on John Wolfgram's Cheverus football team.

Bulger is a snowboarder when he's not running. He didn't have a spring sport, either, which put him behind most of his teammates and opponents who run year-round.

Now, Bulger's gotten religion. Instead of hitting the slopes next month, he'll be on an indoor track.

No one will mistake him for Will Geoghegan, the two-time Class A champion from Brunswick. Or Nate Hathaway, the runner-up from Scarborough. Bulger finished some two-and-a-half minutes behind them in 51st place.

That's the point.

Hundreds of runners came to Twin Brook Recreation Area. Ninety percent of them knew they didn't have a prayer of finishing first in any of the three classes. That's not why they competed.

Mia Rapolla of Gorham wasn't expected to run for the lead, not with Abbey Leonardi of Kennebunk and Emily Durgin of Cheverus in what was thought to be a two-horse race. Rapolla finished sixth and shouted her delight.

She's a junior and a lacrosse player, and a newbie to cross country. She was running herself into condition for the rest of the school year and found herself in the middle of one of Saturday's most competitive races.

They ran for their team and they ran for themselves. They ran, not expecting a media type to walk up to them – Bulger was happily astonished when I introduced myself. They ran, knowing their sport gets bigger headlines and louder sound bites when one or two of their own gets disqualified for wearing a piece of jewelry or holding hands when they cross the finish line.

What, rogue runners running wild?

They ran, knowing that pain would embrace them at the end, no matter if they finished first or 101st. Many times they ran alone, separated from teammates. Near the end of the first mile, Bulger had already lost visual contact with the Cheverus runners ahead. He has their endurance, but not their speed.

He had his teammates' determination, but not much of their experience. "I know I can't use nervous energy. I paced myself by the runners around me."

He hurried forward at the brief awards ceremony when the Cheverus team was called forward...