He spent his freshman and sophomore seasons in Texas before moving to Maine prior to his junior campaign. Last year, Willingham failed to finish the state’s final race at Twin Brook due to complications with a stress fracture in his leg. He completed less than a mile before dropping out. 

Saturday at Troy Howard Middle School, Willingham completed the race and completed it faster than any of the other 831 participants competing across three classes. The Mt. Blue senior tracked down Falmouth’s Bryce Murdick on the home stretch and won the Class A boys’ state individual title in 16 minutes, 0.62 seconds. He finished less than two seconds ahead of Murdick (16:01.12) and Deering’s Iid Sheikh-Yusuf (16:01:73). 

“Last year, I didn’t give it my all because I was injured and this year it’s my last high school race, pretty much, and I just thought, ‘Why not?'” Willingham said. 

Willingham will be one of 25 Maine representatives on the boys’ side to compete at the New England Championships in Manchester, Conn., on Nov. 8. 

Willingham said he prefers running in the heat, which was bad news for the Class A Eastern regional champion. Temperatures at race time dipped into the low 30s, accompanied by a slight mist.

Whether it was the weather or simply going up against some of the best runners in the state, Willingham was never able to break away from the field. Murdick and Sheikh-Yusuf were within footsteps of Willingham the whole way, and he knew it. 

“I kept feeling people right on my heels,” Willingham said. “I heard their breathing. Sometimes they would touch the bottom of my shoes. It was crazy.” 

Murdick made his move with 600 yards to go, passing Willingham for the lead. But with the finish line in sight, Willingham reclaimed his spot in the final 100 yards to take the title. 

“It was pretty awesome,” Mt. Blue coach Kelley Cullinberg said. “He really put things together. He ran a very, very smart race. He fell back a little bit but he didn’t let it get to his head. Honestly, all season we knew he was going to have tough competition in meets like this, and we’ve been working on his leg speed because it’s not really a weakness, because he doesn’t really have a weakness, but it’s one of the things he could improve on and he’s just been looking so good over the last month.”

Willingham’s teammate Dan Lesko finished fifth with a time of 16:22.87 and sixth overall to grab a spot in the New England Championships. The Cougars finished sixth among Class A schools with 168 points. Scarborough won the team title with 73 points.

Cape Elizabeth’s Mitch Morris won the Class B individual state title in 16:13.61, 13 seconds faster than second-place Chandler Vincent of Freeport. Freeport won the Class B team title with 57 points. 

Matthew Toussaint of Fort Kent opened the day by winning the Class C individual title in 16:28.79. He finished 16 seconds ahead of George Stevens’ John Hassett. Merriconeag-Waldorf won the team title with 72 points. 

Area runners qualify for New England Championships

For most runners competing in the state meet, the race itself was the first of two challenges. The second challenge was waiting. Waiting to see whether their time was good enough to advance to next weekend’s New England Championships.

For 25 runners on both the boys’ and girls’ side, their times were good enough. For the rest of the field, they saw their season come to an end.

Class C had the longest wait. Its race finished by 11:30 a.m. Runners didn’t learn their fate for four hours. The three individual champions were assured a spot, the other 22 were given to the next fastest times regardless of class. 

Aside from Willingham and Lesko, Lewiston’s Osman Doorow finished eighth among Class A runners and 12th overall with a time of 16:35.22. Doorow was one of 17 Class A runners to qualify for New Englands. Six runners from Class B and two runners from Class C rounded out the field.

For Winthrop’s Ben Allen, a third-place finish in the Class C race wasn’t enough to make the cut. He finished 30th overall with a time of 16:56.98. He was 10 seconds shy of the 25th-place spot. Toussaint and Hassett were the only two Class C runners in the top 25.

“I expected a little bit better, but what are you going to do?” said Allen, the Class C Western Regional champion. “I gave it all I had and honestly those two had a better day. Matt and (John) were feeling it today. I was feeling pretty good, but just not good enough and sometimes that’s the way it is.” 

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