DOVER-FOXCROFT — With only the final relay left to determine the day, the Lisbon boys’ 4×400 relay team gathered in the infield.

The four of them huddled together and prepared themselves for not only the biggest race of their young lives but potentially one of the most significant in the storied history of Lisbon boys’ track.

“We just said, ‘Let’s do it for our team,” sophomore Austin Bedford said. “We knew we were seeded first. We just had to follow through with it. We’re a good team. We’re a good relay.”

Bedford, Henry Adams, Charles Adams and Jordon Torres were running that final relay. Going into the final event of the day, the Greyhounds held a slim 61-59 lead over Orono in the Class C state championship at Foxcroft Academy. Lisbon was seeded first. Orono was seeded fourth.

At that moment, it wasn’t just about a state championship. It was about themselves, their team and their coaches.

“We were just saying a prayer and asking God to guide us and give us the strength,” junior Charles Adams said. “We did that with the whole boys’ team before that. It gets us ready and gets up pumped. We knew God put us here for a reason. So we just had to do it.”

Lisbon burst out to the early lead in that relay and finished third overall. It was good enough to lift the Greyhounds to their first state championship. Lisbon finished with 67 points. Orono was second with 61 followed by North Yarmouth Academy at 60 and Sacopee Valley at 58.

“I was just thinking about the seniors and my coach (Dean Hall),” Adams said. “He’s never won a state title his whole career. We thought he deserved it because he’s put 30-plus years into this track team. He finally got it. We thought he deserved it.”

Lisbon had come close in 2009. The Greyhounds were second to NYA that year. It came down to the final relay but Lisbon came up short.

Hall has been coaching 36 years. His assistants, Dan Sylvester, Hank Fuller and Doug Sautter have been with him for years.

“It’s been a lot of hard work,” said  Hall, who got an immediate shower from the water bucket after the meet concluded. “That’s the fantastic four that’s been doing it year after year. We’ve been doing it together for over 15 years, and we finally got one.”

Telstar finished eight in the boys’ meet while Monmouth took ninth.

In the girls’ meet, Orono won with 102 points with Traip second with 74. Seacoast was third with 43. St. Dom’s was in a three-way tie for fifth with McAuley and Yarmouth. Lisbon took eighth.

The Lisbon boys led for much of the day. After Charles Adams took third in the hurdles, the Greyhounds were 10 points ahead of Sacopee Valley, 59-49.

The meet narrowed at the end. After the 800, Lisbon was at 59, Orono at 56 and Sacopee at 49. In the 3,200 Orono’s James O’Neill took fifth. Lisbon’s Nick Harriman was sixth.  That gave Lisbon a 61-59 lead going into the final relay.

“We got huge points in the racewalk,” said Hall, who got a win from Tyler Bard and second from Jeff Willey. “There were times where we had miscues, you think you’re going to get three points and you only get two points. Standouts in the afternoon was Charles Adams in the hurdles and Nick Harriman in the 3,200.”

In the 4×400 relay, Bedford got off to a fast start. He got ahead of Orono’s runner and closed the gap on those in front of him. By the time he handed off to Adams for the second leg, he was in second.

“I was running on adrenalin,” Bedford said. “I wasn’t really nervous at all. I knew my buddies would back it up. I just tried to get where I needed to be and get my team up.”

Adams took the lead and extended  it before handing off to Henry Adams. By that point, Lisbon was well ahead and the Orono team was far behind. On the final leg, Monmouth made a push as did NYA. Both teams edged out Torres late in the race. Lisbon finished third and Orono took sixth.

“I just wanted it,” Adams said. “I believed it and I believed I was going to win. If you believe in your head you know you’re going to win, you take that onto the track. If you lose in your head, then there’s no chance.”

Lisbon’s only win came from Bard in the racewalk, but the Greyhounds got a tremendous efforts from a variety of kids to build the lead.

“All we knew with the simulated meet was that if everyone kept their seeds, we were predicted to win,” Adams said. “That’s what we kept doing. We tried to shoot for our seeds. We kept seeing people PR and do better. So when people didn’t place their seeds, the people that PR’d made up for that. It was a very big team effort.”

In the 4×800 relay, Henry Adams, Nick Huston, Harriman and Bedford took third. Charles Adams was third in both hurdle events. The 4×100 relay team of Quincy Thompson, Henry Adams, Shawn Grover and Torres took fourth. Jordan Glover was third in the long jump and sixth in the triple. Andrew Golino was fifth in the shot. Cam Ramich was third in the pole vault while Bard was fifth.

It was an impressive finish to the season for the Lisbon boys’ team that never have home meets since the school has just a dirt track. They overcame that disadvantage to claim the state’s top prize. With an upcoming vote to determine whether a new track facility should be built at Lisbon, Hall says this win shows what could be the norm, if the program had the opportunity to train like their competitors.

“I hope this will encourage them to go and continue to support our program and vote the money in for a new track,” Hall said. “Then  we won’t have to run on dirt and then this won’t be a rare feat. It will be a common feat.”

Also in the boys’ meet, Monmouth’s Marques Houston won both the 400 and 200 and anchored the final leg of the victorious 4×400 relay team with Ben Bailey, Stewart Buzzell and Casey Clement.

“It’s very exciting, not many people at Monmouth have ever done anything like this,” Houston said.

He came from behind in the final leg of the relay to win. He won the 400 in 51.24 and then took the 200 in 23.22.

“It was only my third time running the 200,” Houston said.” So I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I’m still trying to get the hang of it.”

He said he was hoping to stay ahead in the 200 but wasn’t expecting to be in the lead in the 400.

“I wasn’t really expecting that,” Houston said. “I thought I’d have more people to chase.”

Telstar’s Josef Andrews repeated in the 1,600 and the 3,200. He won the 1,600 in 4:24.03 and took the 3,200 in 9:32.62. Telstar also got a fifth from Avery Griffin in the 300 hurdles and a fourth from Bronson Dean in the 800. The Rebels also took fourth in the 4×400 relay with the team of Kellen True, Dean, Maverick Griffin and Avery Griffin. Maverick Grinnin added a third in the 40o.

Oak Hill got a fifth from Drew Gamage in the high jump and the triple jump. Mountain Valley’s Shawn Bennett took seventh in the high jump and Tom Thibeau was sixth in the javelin.

In the girls’ meet, Lisbon’s 4×800 relay team took second with Paige Galigan, Olivia Bulgin, Adrianna White and Bree Sautter. Bulgin took second in the race walk while Abigail Gamache was seventh. Sautter took fifth in the 400. The 4×400 relay team of Mia Durgin, Sautter, Bulgin and White was fifth. Chase Collier was seventh in the long jump. Durgin was sixth in the pole vault.

St. Dom’s got a win from Sydney Sirois in the racewalk in 8:18.15. Ellen Tuttle was third. The Saitlao got a  third from Faith Grady in the 100 and 200.

Telstar got a sixth from Casey Blaszczak in the 400 and a sixth from Nisrina Hamdi in the high jump.

Monmouth’s relay team of Tiffany Pease, Carey Knowles, Shayna Frost and Ashleigh Hartford were seventh in the 4×800. The team of Madi Buman, Izzy Lewis, Rose Bryant and Emily Levasseur was third in the 4×100. The team of Frost, Pease, Sydney Wilson and Hartford were seventh in the 4×400.

Winthrop’s relay team of Jada Choate, Caela Hajduk, Kaitlin Souza and Molly Kieltyka was fifth in the 4×800. Emma Conrad added a sixth in the race walk. Rachel Ingram took second in the long jump and the triple jump.

Dirigo’s Jess Conant was fourth in the 400 while Sabrina Daoud took fourth in the 300 hurdles. Mountain Valley’s Kaitlyn Virgin took seventh in the triple jump.

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