The Maine State Championships for men’s indoor track and field proceed like any other meet — until the final event.

That’s when the lights go out and the fun begins: the famous 4×800 “Blackout Relay.”

Flashback to 2001. A windstorm rages outside Merrill Gymnasium. All’s well until the final event, the 4×800 relay. Midway through the first lap, there’s a brief power outage, leading to “one of the most unusual races in state meet history,” as then-ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Sports Information Director Adam Levin reported.

The outage “plung[ed] the facility into darkness,” Levin said. “When power came back several seconds later, the track was still mostly dark…. The halogen lamps that illuminate the main track, requiring minutes to brighten, remained dark.”

After a brief attempt to stop the race, officials let it continue. As head coach Al Fereshetian said then, “I had never seen anything like that in my life. But once those runners decided to continue, there was no stopping them….Everyone said it was the most fun they have had at a track meet in a long time.”

A tradition was born, and since then the Bobcats and their Maine opponents always turn off the lights for the meet-ending 4×800.

Fereshetian’s tune hasn’t changed since 2001. “It’s crazy. It really is the highlight of the meet and everybody loves it. It really doesn’t matter how it turns out, it’s just the atmosphere that’s created and just the competitive spirit that shows up.”

The current Bobcats embrace the tradition as a memorable part of what it means to be a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ track athlete.

Senior captain Rob Flynn of Bedford, N.H. sums up the experience. “Thinking back on my four years here and all of the greats before me that have been able to run in that event , it’s a great group of guys, and I am very honored to be a part of that.”

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ track and field throwers have been winning national titles and earning All-America honors since 1935.

Nick Margitza ’16 of Waterville, Maine, and Adedire Fakorede ’18 of Newark, N.J., are ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ latest All-America throwers, and they talk about their friendship, the alumni tradition that encourages them, and how they “like to scrap a little, to get riled up.”

“I’d take him on the team right now!”

So said Al Fereshetian, men’s track and field coach, after seeing this circa-1935 film clip of famed ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ thrower Anton “Tony” Kishon ’37 in action, probably on Garcelon Field.

“His form and technique are good,” Fereshetian says. “He’s relaxed and fluid. He’s not a big guy, which means he had to be better technically than others.”

Kishon won the hammer throw at the 1935 NCAA outdoor championships, held at Berkeley’s Edwards Stadium.

If there’s a difference in throwing style since the 1930s, says Fereshetian, it’s the footwork, which is key to the speed of the hammer.

Today, a Fereshetian-coached thrower would, within each turn, try to spend more time with both feet in contact with the ground. “That would mean ‘catching’ the ball earlier and rotating the right foot deeper into the turn before it leaves the ground.”

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ junior Vantiel Elizabeth Duncan (Topsham, Maine) became a three-time All-American by finishing fifth in the women’s hammer throw at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships last week at Marietta College.

Duncan also came up just short of claiming a second All-America award in these championships on Saturday in the shot put, making the finals but finishing in ninth place with a top heave of 13.10 meters (42-11.75). Duncan was seeded 15th in the event going in.

Duncan’s top hammer throw of 52.29 meters (171-6), qualified her for the nine-athlete final. It is her first outdoor All-America award, after twice achieving the feat at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the weight throw.

Duncan and senior teammate Izzy Alexander (Harvard, Mass.) represented the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ women’s team at the meet. Alexander placed sixth in the 400-meter hurdles to finish her career with five All-America honors, the second highest total in team history.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ senior Izzy Alexander (Harvard, Mass.) broke the New England Division III Women’s Track and Field Championship meet record in the 400-meter hurdles on Saturday at Springfield College, winning the event in 1:01.78 and slicing 0.18 seconds off of the previous set by Springfield’s Beth Bowler in 1998. Alexander’s time also lowered her own ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ outdoor record in the event by 0.13 seconds. She was 1.82 seconds ahead of runner-up Alice Wisener of Middlebury.

Alexander’s effort highlighted the Bobcats day at the meet, in which the team finished ninth for the third year in a row. The Bobcats scored 40.5 points, well ahead of 10th-place Brandeis (25) among 26 point-scoring teams.

Also at the meet, Alexander teamed up with senior Jen Marino (Methuen, Mass.), sophomore Dana Lindauer (Needham, Mass.) and senior Tara Higgins (Jeffersonville, Vt.) and Alexander placed seventh in a time of 4:07.29.

Next up for the Bobcats is the all-divisions Open New England Championships at UMass-Amherst this weekend.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ first-year Candido Bousquet (Colombo, Sri Lanka) displayed terrific versatility Saturday at the NESCAC Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Connecticut College, and was one of the Bobcats keys to nipping Tufts for second place at the meet by half a point.

Bousquet competed in four events on the day and scored a combined 13 points points for the Bobcats in three of them. He placed third in the long jump (22-01.75), third in the discus throw (139-06) and eighth in the shot put (42-00.50). Bousquet was also 13th in the hammer throw (130-04). Every point counted for the Bobcats, who scored 116.5 points, just ahead of Tufts (116) for their highest team finish since 2004.

Bousquet earned NESCAC All-Conference honors in both the long jump and the discus throw for placing among the top three, and was also a strong candidate to claim Most Outstanding Rookie Performer honors.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ junior Rich McNeil (Lawrence, Mass.) won three throwing events last weekend at the Colby Invitational, helping the Bobcats claim first place out of four teams, including their first regular-season win over MIT in 14 years.

McNeil, a five-time All-NESCAC performer, one-time All-American and the 2007 NESCAC Most Outstanding Rookie Performer placed first in the hammer throw, the discus throw and the shot put (45-04.25). His tosses in the discus (145-02) and the hammer (174-10) were both season bests.

McNeil was named the NESCAC Field Performer of the Week, the New England Small College Athletic Conference announced on Monday.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College sophomore Ryan Quinn recorded two personal-best performances on Saturday as the Bobcats opened the outdoor season at the Snowflake Classic meet at Tufts.

Quinn (Watertown, Mass.) posted personal-best performances in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes, finishing second in the 100 in 11.19 seconds and fourth in the 200 at 22.71 seconds. His times put him at No. 6 and No. 10, respectively, on ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ all-time outdoor performance lists. Quinn also anchored the 4×100 meter relay team, which finished second at the meet in a time of 44.02 seconds.

Quinn helped the Bobcats finish second out of 13 teams at the meet, and he was named the NESCAC Track & Field Men’s Track Performer of the Week on Monday.