Falmouth celebrates after winning the Class A state championship. Photo by Emily Bontatibus

BANGOR — Falmouth High has produced a lot of strong boys swimmers and divers over the last four decades, and a lot of strong teams. But over that time, the Navigators haven’t synced them up in one season, making a team state title elusive.

Tuesday at Husson University, it all came together for the Navigators at the Class A boys state meet. Falmouth put together strong efforts in individual events and relays to earn its first state championship in 41 years.

Falmouth scored 244 points, edging the Edward Little/Lewiston/Poland/Leavitt co-op, which finished second with 226.5 points. Scarborough, which won the last three state championships, placed third with 198 points.

Falmouth’s last boys swimming championship was in 1984, when it won Class B for the fifth consecutive season.

“It’s 40-something odd years. I’m really happy that this team could finally bring it back,” said Falmouth junior Malcolm Sprague, who earned a win in the 50-yard freestyle and placed second in the 100 backstroke. “A lot of teamwork from our team. We haven’t had the best team chemistry lately, but I think we finally brought it back in today.”

The Red Storm were disqualified in the 200 freestyle relay for a false start. Scarborough was the top seed in the event, but that result ended up not impacting the overall scores. Even if Scarborough won, the 40 points earned would not have been enough to catch either Falmouth or ELPL, who finished second and third in the relay.

Ahead of ELPL by 7.5 points going into the final event — the 400 freestyle relay — the Navigators knew they were in good shape to claim the title. The team of Sean Lowery, Ben Zaslavsky, Carter Verlee, and Sprague won the race, widening the final margin of victory.

It also helped the Navigators that they had the only competitor in the diving competition held Friday. Logan McVeigh, a senior, earned 20 points for the team.

Sprague thought his win in the 50 freestyle, which came as the No. 2 seed, helped set the tone for the Navigators.

“It gave us a lot more confidence than we had at the beginning. That got us going,” he said.

Falmouth also got an individual championship from Verlee in the 200 freestyle. The No. 2 seed in the event, Verlee finished in 1:47.44, just ahead of favorite Andy Marvin of Deering/Portland.

“Andy Marvin, he’s so nice. He’s very fun to race against,” Verlee said.

Marvin returned the favor in the 100 freestyle later in the meet when he won in 48.63 seconds, holding off Verlee (49.11 seconds).

“I talked to my coaches before (the 100), and they said instead of like the 200, just go out as fast as I could in the first 50 (yards) and then see whatever I had left instead of saving it for the last 50,” Marvin said. “I’ve been doing that all season, so we wanted to just switch it up and see what happens.”

Racing for the Mt. Ararat/Brunswick co-op team, Mt. Ararat senior Joshua Langworthy was named swimmer of the meet. Langworthy earned individual wins in the 200 individual medley (2:02.48) and 100 backstroke (54.77 seconds), and also swam with his team’s victorious 200 freestyle and 200 medley relay teams.

Langworthy’s win in the 200 IM may have been the surprise of the day. He entered the race seeded fifth. Langworthy said he knew he’d need to get to the front in the backstroke leg and then work to hold off favorite Chase Leonardo of ELPL, who placed second, just under a second behind Langworthy.

“I think the backstroke is what I’m usually stronger in, but I was really happy with my IM time. I dropped eight seconds from seed time, and I think I’m overall more happy with that,” Langworthy said. “Chase Leonardo, he was a very talented breaststroker. He’s good overall, but his breaststroke is phenomenal. So I knew I really had to get ahead in the backstroke to try to fight him off.”