GORHAM — Kohl Valle of Falmouth saw the Scarborough runner in front of him and knew what he had to do.
Running the second leg on the 800-meter relay, the final event that would decide the Class A indoor track and field state championship, Valle flew by his opponent on the back stretch to give Falmouth a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
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Falmouth won the relay and the state title in dramatic fashion Monday at the University of Southern Maine. The Yachtsmen trailed by three points entering the relay but collected 10 points for their victory and won by three over the favored Red Storm.
In the girls’ meet, which was predicted to be a battle among several teams, Thornton Academy captured its second straight title. Unlike the boys’ meet, Thornton had the title locked up before the final relay.
The Falmouth boys’ finished with 59 points to Scarborough’s 56. Deering was third with 43.
This is Falmouth’s first Class A title after moving up from Class B last season. The Yachtsmen won five Class B championships from 2006-11.
Thornton finished with 53 points in the girls’ meet. Lewiston was second with 49, followed by Scarborough (42), Cheverus (33) and Bonny Eagle (31).
Falmouth’s 800 relay team of Andy Clement, Valle, Nick Sanzari and Tony St. Angelo was the No. 1 seed in the event. It won the race in 1:33:15.
“I knew I needed to get by the Scarborough runner,” said Valle. “I turned on the jets. It feels great to win the state title.”
Falmouth Coach Jorma Kurry said Valle has been running like that the whole season. He had a lot of confidence in his relay team.
“The whole team contributed to this win,” said Kurry. “We picked up points here and there. They all added up. Matt Edmonds finishing fourth in the shot put and achieving a huge PR set the tone.”
Edmonds was seeded eighth and improved by almost four feet.
Kurry also cited distance runner Bryce Murdick’s third in the mile (4:36.72) and fifth in the 2-mile (10:01.73), Aaron Thomas’ fourth in the pole vault (12-6), and Falmouth going 4-5-6 in the 200 as keys to the Yachtsmen’s win.
Sanzari placed fourth in the 200, while Valle and Clement, both unseeded, were fifth and sixth.
“Falmouth deserved it,” said Scarborough Coach Derek Veilleux, whose team had won four consecutive state titles. “They performed really well. We didn’t have our best meet, but that’s track.”
It started out well for the Red Storm as Hugh McSorley won the shot put with a throw of 51-41/4. Things started to unravel soon after, but the Red Storm still had a shot to win it at the end.
Jacob Terry’s victory in the 2-mile (9:46.76) late in the meet briefly revived the Red Storm.
With Falmouth taking the lead on the second leg of the relay, it was a battle between Noble and Scarborough for second.
If the Red Storm finished second, they would have won by a point. Noble, though, finished second, and Thornton Academy, running in the previous heat, was third, with Scarborough settling for fourth.
“I want to give a big thanks to Noble,” said Valle.
Hany Ramadan of Deering set a state record in the 400 with a time of 49.78 and just missed a record in the 200. His time of 22.70 was just 0.05 off the record. Jake Dixon of Cheverus was a close second in both races.
The Thornton girls also had some clutch performances and personal records.
“We knew it was going to be a tight meet,” said Thornton Coach Lisa Huntress.
“Going in there were five teams grouped together. This win is a testament to all the hard work in practice. We started 12 weeks ago and this is a very nice outcome.”
Tori Daigle won three events for Thornton. Down to one more chance in the long jump after fouling on her first two attempts, she broke her own Class A record with a leap of 18-2. She also won the triple jump (37-91/2) and the 55 hurdles (8.61).
A key for the Golden Trojans was that in the three events Daigle won, they had other scorers as well.
Allie Pettaway was fourth in the long jump and sixth in the triple jump, and Olivia Libby was seventh in the hurdles.
Pettaway held her seed in the 55 to finish third with a time of 7.54. Samantha Curran won the shot put for Thornton, and her throw of 38-03/4 was close to three feet better than her previous best.
“This is an incredible feeling,” said Pettaway. “We knew we wanted to go out with a bang and we did. I moved up three spots in the triple jump. The little points all add up. It’s what makes the difference in a meet like this.”
It was Thornton Academy’s eighth indoor state title.
Heather Kendall of Lewiston won the 55 (7.36) and 200 (26.37) and was on the winning 800 relay, leading the Blue Devils to their best finish ever.
Peter Hegarty of Sanford won the pole vault at 13-6.
Justin Gagnon of Biddeford edged Griffin Madden of Scarborough in the 55 hurdles, 7.78 to 7.83.
Tom Chard can be contacted at 791-6419 or at
tchard@pressherald.com
Twitter: TomChardPPH
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