Bangor’s Quaglia claims individual title Ellsworth, Foxcroft capture runner-up honors in B, C

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TURNER – Casey Quaglia finished his first season of high school cross country in style.

As the Bangor High School senior crossed the finish line to win the Class A individual boys title in 16 minutes, 59 seconds at Saturday’s state meet at Leavitt Area High School, he did his best David Ortiz impersonation, pointing to the sky.

“I’m just trying to make a tradition here, you know,” Quaglia said with a smile after leading his Rams to a seventh-place finish out of 15 teams.

Scarborough captured the state title in Class A while Cape Elizabeth won in Class B and Lisbon in Class C.

Quaglia was bunched in a pack that included Deering of Portland’s John Minser, Gorham’s Tim Millett, and Edward Little of Auburn’s Tom Esponette.

“Every turn there was a different leader, every hill there was a different leader,” Quaglia said. “It was anybody’s race and it came down to heart.”

And a finishing kick, which is one of many weapons that have made Quaglia one of Maine’s top runners.

“That’s exactly what it came down to,” he said. “Coming down the hill I took the lead, but coming out of the woods I took a wrong turn and lost about six strides, but I recovered and kept my head on straight.”

The hill Quaglia referred to is a tough, straight-up, no-break stretch known as Satan’s Inferno.

“I can see why it got that name, that was a crazy uphill,” Quaglia said.

Bangor’s Riley Masters, a junior, battled leg cramps but ran to a strong ninth place.

“Riley did amazing; I’m really proud of him,” Quaglia said. “He was moaning throughout the race, but I told him ‘keep going,’ and he held strong.”

In the team competition, Scarborough cruised to its third straight title with 109 points while Cheverus of Portland was second with 126.

Lewiston was third (131), EM champ Edward Little fourth (138), and Brunswick fifth (161).

Brewer finished 15th with 324 points, while Travis Blackmer earned a 22nd-place finish for the Witches. Bangor tallied 177 points.

In the Class B race, Caribou’s Sam Sheehan battled Ethan Shaw of Falmouth throughout the race, but Shaw got the better of the Vikings’ senior in the stretch portion of the race where the uphills come into play.

“I just didn’t take the hill as well as he did, he ran a much smarter race,” said Sheehan, who led most of the way. “He got a little lead and I just didn’t have enough, just couldn’t catch him.”

Shaw finished in 16:22.4, the day’s fastest time, while Sheehan was second in 16:27.8.

Sheehan’s efforts led the Vikes to a third-place finish in the team standings, which he hopes will send them to next weekend’s New England Championships.

“That’s what we’re hoping for. We want to get to the New England meet,” Sheehan said. “Hopefully we did enough to do that; we ran a lot faster than [some] of the [Class] ‘A’ teams out there today.”

Sheehan credited coach Roy Alden for all the work he’s done not only with Sheehan, but with the Caribou program in general.

“Coach Alden, I think [he’s] the best coach in the state,” Sheehan said. “I know as a veteran this man puts more heart and soul into his cross country program than any other coach in the state.”

Cape Elizabeth tucked three runners in the top 10 and five in the top 17, cruising to its second straight team championship with 45 points while Eastern Maine champ Ellsworth was second with 82.

Corey DeWitt and Logan Will recorded top-10 finishes for the Eagles, finishing sixth and ninth, respectively.

Alec Phippen (20th), Ben Chapman (26th), and Dakota Hellum (33rd) rounded out Ellsworth’s top five individuals.

Caribou scored 100 points, Falmouth’s 120 was good for fourth, and Greely of Cumberland Center took fifth with 125.

Spencer McElwain took 18th and Stefan Ciszewski 21st for the Vikings.

In Class C, Lisbon senior Tyler Clark cruised to the individual title in 16:24.3 and led the Greyhounds to their fourth straight state title with 54 points.

Eastern Maine champ Foxcroft Academy turned in a fine effort, taking second place with 105 points. PVC rival Orono was third with 138, Winthrop fourth with 144, and Traip Academy of Kittery fifth with 150.

Sophomore Graham Pearsall led Foxcroft with a seventh-place finish while senior Jerod Hayes was 15th. Isaac Almy, Martin Flagg, and Seth Oldfield went 25-26-33 to round out the Ponies’ scorers.

Addison Pellerano from George Stevens in Blue Hill ran to third place in 17:30.6 while Orono’s Matthieu Nadeau took sixth in 17:47.2. Anthony Wilson from Central of Corinth was 10th.