The top four teams were separated by just seven points in the State Class A boys outdoor track championships at Morse High School in Bath on Saturday.
Even more noteworthy was the fact there was absolutely no separation in points among the leading two teams, which meant Falmouth High School and Thornton Academy of Saco are co-state champions.
They each finished with 67 points, followed closely behind by Cheverus High of Portland (64) and defending two-time state champ Scarborough (60). Completing the top 10 were Edward Little High of Auburn (56.5), Bonny Eagle of Buxton (47), Lewiston (40), Windham (34), Mt. Ararat of Topsham (30) and Biddeford (24).
Interestingly, the last time Falmouth won a state championship in outdoor track was 2012 in Class B and the Yachtsmen shared the title that year, too, with York High School.
Thornton Academy’s state championship is its first since 2008.
In the Class A girls meet, freshman Victoria Bossong won the 100 and 400-meter dashes and junior Emma White won the triple jump and long jump as Cheverus High of Portland captured its second straight state championship.
Bossong and White also each ran a leg for the triumphant 4 x 400 meter relay team as did sophomore Emma Gallant, who won the 200 and was second in the 400.
Cheverus racked up 84 points to outdistance runner-up Thornton Academy by 20 points.
Completing the top 10 were Gorham (49), Scarborough (45), Falmouth (38), Noble of North Berwick (34), Bonny Eagle (34), Hampden Academy (32), Edward Little (31) and Oxford Hills High of South Paris (29).
In the boys meet, a pair of Thornton Academy juniors, Travis Snyder and Jason Montano, combined to win five individual events, enabling George Mendros’ Trojans to earn a share of the title.
Snyder won the 110 meter hurdles, the 300 hurdles and the pole vault while Montano captured the discus and the shot put.
Falmouth won just one event, the 4 x 100 meter relay, but Danny Paul’s Yachtsmen finished second in the the other two relays and received second and third place finishes from junior John Auer in the 800 and 1600-meter runs and second-place showings by junior Douglas Cooke in the 400 and freshman Alvaro Fuentes in the 200.
Fuentes also ran legs for the winning relay team and the 4 x 400 squad.
Windham High School senior Alex Wilkins, Cheverus sophomore Sean Tompkins and Mt. Ararat sophomore Lisandro Berry-Gaviria each won two individual events as Wilkins defended his 2017 title in the triple jump and also won the long jump; Tompkins prevailed in the 100 and 200 meter dashes and Berry-Gaviria won the 1600 and 3200 meter runs..
The other individual winners were Cheverus’ Owen Burke (400), Oxford Hills’ Dawson Stevens, who defended his javelin title; Brunswick’s Samuel Cenescar (high jump), Hampden Academy’s Wyatt Lord (800) and Edward Little’s Matt Syphers (1600 meter walk).
Fuentes was accompanied on the winning 4 x 100 relay team by Ethan Ali, Adrian Freeman and Kyle Bouchard. Bonny Eagle won the 4 x 400 relay with a team of Derek Cole, Alex Sprague, Andrew Pendleton and Zackary Allocca and Scarborough captured the 4 x 800 with a team of Harrison Osborne, Tristam Coffin, Erik Larkin and Noah Drapeau.
In the girls meet, Steve Virgilio’s Stags received 64 points in individual events from White (26 points), Bossong (20) and Gallant (18). They earned 10 more points by teaming up with Victoria Bolduc on the winning 4 x 400 relay team and and Bossong and Gallant also ran legs for the second-place 4 x 100 relay team earning eight more points. Bolduc and Evelyn Hanley ran the other legs.
White and Gallant repeated as state champs in the long jump and 200, respectively.
Falmouth junior Malaika Pasch notched a pair of individual titles as she won the 800 and 1600 meter runs.
The other individual winners were Hampden Academy’s Moxie Flanagan (1600 race walk), Scarborough’s Emily Labbe (100 hurdles), Thornton Academy’s Jaigan Boudreau (discus), Oxford Hills’ Maighread Laliberte (shot put), Edward Little’s Lauren Berube (pole vault), Deering of Portland’s Annah Rossvall (300 hurdles), Bonny Eagle’s Ami Beaumier (3200), Westbrook’s Nyagoa Bayak (high jump) and Oxford Hills’s Jadah Adams (javelin).
Beaumier, Bayak and Adams are repeat state champs.
The other triumphant relay teams, in addition to Cheverus’ unit in the 4 x 400, were Bonny Eagle (Beaumier, Emma Abbott, Christine Toy and Kayla Raymond) in the 4 x 800 and Thornton Academy (Mia Taranko, Katie-Marie Roy, Sabria Merrifield and Kieya Dion) in the 4 x 100.
Taranko, Roy, Merrifield and Dion won the 4 x 100 last year.
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