Quaglia’s triple play keys Rams EMITL boys title first for Bangor since ’99

ORONO – For the second time in the last three Eastern Maine Indoor Track League championship meets, the boys’ top performer was a runner who completed the grueling distance triple (mile, 800, 2-mile), won each race to score 30 points and led his team to victory.

Two years ago it was Hampden Academy’s Brian Herasymchuck. Saturday it was Bangor sophomore Casey Quagilia.

Quaglia’s 30-point performance was enough to earn the Rams their first EM championship since 1999 with a 97-79 victory over runner-up Hampden Academy at the UMaine Field House.

“The only reason I tripled was for the team. We needed the points,” said Quaglia.

Ironically, Herasymchuck is now the Hampden distance coach.

Old Town finished third out of 11 teams with 58 points. Orono was fourth with 53 points and Ellsworth’s 37 rounded out the top five.

Two records fell in the meet. Hampden senior Tranior Kapler set the mark in the 200-meter dash with a 23.32-second clocking, a tenth of a second faster than former Bucksport star Peter Saunders’ mark set in 1999.

Old Town shot putter Tyler Eastman continued to climb the record ladder, breaking the EMITL standard for the fifth time this season with a heave of 55 feet, 23/4 inches on his final throw, setting himself up to go after the state Class B mark (55-11) next week.

Quaglia earned his wins in the mile and 800 by close margins. After Brewer’s Brendan Carr went through the 800 mark in 2 minutes, 28 seconds in the mile with Quaglia one second back, the Rams’ sophomore ran the last half in 2:11 to take the win in 4:40.27. Carr finished second in 4:42.18.

“I had a goal going into it to pass him [Carr] with two laps left and just have a better kick,” Quagila said. “He ended up taking my strategy, but my kick ended up being better than his.”

The 800 was seeded to be a battle between Quaglia and David Burtchell of Ellsworth, who won a close 400 with Adam Wiswell of George Stevens in 53.62 seconds. But Quaglia took advantage of that fact and took the 800 out in splits of 29 and 59 seconds for the first two laps. Burtchell eventually faded, and Quaglia took the win in 2:04.19 despite a formidable challenge from Micah Mishio of Orono, who came in second (2:06.07).

“This kid from Orono [Mishio] ran a great race,” Quaglia said. “He was pushing me, so I had to come up strong.”

Quaglia and Carr were stride-for-stride halfway through the 2-mile as expected, going through in 5:10. Quaglia eventually pulled away, despite having “nothing left,” and won in 10:30.

Quaglia credited his teammates for getting him going in the last half of the race.

“Everyone cheering on the straightaway got me going,” he said. “I thought [Carr] was going to kill me. I had nothing left.”

Veteran Bangor coach Maynard Walton knew Quaglia would be one of the keys to the meet as Hampden was the stronger team in the sprints and jumps.

“We knew that Casey was the key, and it had to take a tremendous effort in that mile, the 800 and the 2-mile,” he said. “We’ve been training him to do that.”

While Quaglia was running the 2-mile, the Broncos pulled ahead by one point thanks to a 1-2-4 effort from Ben Toothaker, Zach Gamble and Kapler in the triple jump.

“We knew that we had to get points in every event in order to beat them,” Walton said.

Both of Bangor’s relay teams, the 4×880 and 4×220, were victorious. Pat Taylor, who anchored the 4×880, was third in the 800 in 2:08.13. Nick Buchanan took the high jump with a leap of 6 feet.

Hampden senior Kapler received some advice just before the 200 from former Broncos coach Dave King, who was one of the starters at the meet.

“It feels amazing. He [King] said, ‘This is your last time. Just go,'” Kapler said of the 200 mark.

Toothaker took the triple jump (41-3/4) while Gamble earned second with a jump of 40-1/2. Kapler’s top mark was 39-11/2. Old Town’s Mark Liimakka won the pole vault (11-6) while teammate Sam Petrie was second (11-0).