It took 16 years, but the Old Rochester Regional High School boys cross country team is back at the top of the South Coast Conference.

The team clinched the conference title with a win over Seekonk and Fairhaven on Tuesday afternoon. The Bulldogs also took all four top spots at the meet.

Coach Cindy Tilden, who has coached the team for the past 13 years, attributed the win to the fact that the team just has a larger number of faster runners than in years past.

“We’ve been successful because of our depth at the top,” she said. “We used to have one boy leading the way, but now we have a bigger group that runs together out front.”

Sophomore Adam Sylvia is part of this top handful of runners, and he agreed that it was the team’s ability to stick together at the front of the group that made them successful.

“Ever since the first race we’ve run in a pack,” he said.

Jacob Spevack, a senior and captain, has been on the team all four years of high school and is happy to see all the hard work the team has put in over the years pay off.

“We’ve really worked hard,” he said. “We saw the potential to be at the top. It feels great.”

Sylvia said the guys put in a lot of work, and after their first meet, when they knocked off Dighton-Rehoboth, they gained confidence.

“I think that first meet of the season woke everyone up,” he said. “It made us think we could really do it.”

Next, the runners will compete at the championship meet in two weeks, and they know it won’t be easy.

“We were able to win the conference as a team, but there are still really good runners that will be at the championship meet,” Spevack said. “We won’t let this win go to our heads.”

For now, the plan is to keep training hard and to keep that pack mentality.

“We’re going to keep using that strategy of running together to help us,” Sylvia said.

The girls cross country team also clinched the SCC title at the meet, capturing it for the sixth year in a row. The team went undefeated this season.