GORHAM — Kohl Valle of Falmouth saw the Scarborough runner in front of him and knew what he had to do.

Running the second leg on the 800-meter relay, the final event which would decide the Class A state championship, Valle flew by his opponent on the back stretch to give Falmouth a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

Falmouth won the relay and the state track title in dramatic fashion Saturday at the University of Southern Maine. The Yachtsmen trailed by three points entering the relay, collected 10 points for the relay, and won by three over the favored Red Storm.

In the girls’ meet that was predicted to be a battle among several teams, Thornton Academy captured its second straight title. Unlike the boys’ meet, Thornton had this locked up before the final relay.

The Falmouth boys’ finished with 59 points to Scarborough’s 56. Deering was third with 43 points. Rounding out the top five were Brunswick (35) and Lewiston (32). Twenty-five teams completed in the boys’ meet.

The win in their second season in Class A will join five Class B indoor state titles for the Yachtsmen.

Thornton finished with 53 points in the girls’ meet. Lewiston was second with 49 points, followed by Scarborough (42), Cheverus (33) and Bonny Eagle (31). Twenty-three teams completed in the girls’ meet.

Messalonskee senior Taylor Lenentine finished first in the pole vault, clearing 10 feet.

Running the fifth heat with the other top teams, the No. 1 seeded Falmouth relay team consisted of lead off runner Andy Clement, Valle, Nick Sanzari and anchor Tony St. Angelo. They were timed in an impressive 1:33.15.

“I knew I needed to get by the Scarborough runner,” said Valle.

“I turned on the jets. It feels great to win the state title,” he said.

Falmouth Coach Jorma Kurry said Valle has been running like that the whole season. He had a lot of confidence in his relay team.

“The whole team contributed to this win,” said Kurry.

“We picked up points here and there. They all added up. Matt Edmonds finishing fourth in the shot put and achieving a huge PR set the done,” he said.

Edmonds was seeded eighth and improved by almost four feet.

Kurry also cited distance runner Bryce Murdick’s third in the mile and fifth in the two-mile, Aaron Thomas’s fourth in the pole vault and the 200 in which Falmouth went 4-5-6 to pick up nine points.

Sanzari placed fourth in the 200 while Valle and Clement, both unseeded, were fifth and sixth.

“Falmouth deserved it,” said Scarborough Coach Derek Veilleux.

“They performed really well. We didn’t have our best meet, but that’s track.”

It started out well for the Red Storm as Hugh McSorley won the shot put with a throw of 51-feet, 4.25 inches. Things started to unravel soon after, but despite that, the Red Storm had a shot to win it at the end. Jacob Terry’s win in the two-mile late in the meet briefly revived the Red Storm.

With Falmouth taking the lead on the second leg of the relay, it was a battle between Noble and Scarborough for second. If the Red Storm could have grabbed second, they would have won by a point. Noble, though, finished second, and Thornton Academy, running in the previous heat, took third with Scarborough settling for fourth.

“I want to give a big thanks to Noble,” said Valle.

Hany Ramadan of Deering set a state record in the 400 with a time of 49.78 and then just missed a record in the 200. His time of 22.70 was just 0.5 off a state record. Jake Dixon of Cheverus was a close second in both races.

The Thornton girls also had some clutch perfomances and personal records to pull it out.

“We knew it was going to be a tight meet,” said Thornton Coach Lisa Huntress.

“Going in there were five teams grouped together. This win is a testament to all the hard work in practice. We started 12 weeks ago and this is a very nice outcome,” she said.

Tori Daigle won three events for Thornton — the long jump in which she broke her own state record of a year ago with a jump of 18-feet, 2 inches, the triple jump (37-feet, 9.50 inches and the 55 hurdles (8.61). A key for the Golden Trojans was that in the three events Daigle won, they had other scorers in all those events. Allie Pettaway got a fourth in the long jump and sixth in the triple jump and Olivia Libby a seventh in the hurdles.

Pettaway held her seed in the 55-meter dash to finish third with a time of 7.54. Samantha Curran won the shot put for Thornton and improved her throw by close to three feet from her previous best.

“This is an incredible feeling,” said Pettaway.

“We knew we wanted to go out with a bang and we did. I moved up three spots in the triple jump. The little points all add up. It’s what makes the difference in a meet like this,” she said.

It was Thornton Academy’s eighth overall indoor state track title.

Heather Kendall of Lewiston won the 55 and 200 and was on the winning 800 relay. Peter Hegarty of Sanford won the pole vault at 13-feet, 6 inches. Justin Gagnon of Biddeford edged Griffin Madden of Scarborough in the 55 hurdles.