New Britain — There were nine young men in black jerseys with maroon and white lettering who had just run the 3,200-meter race on an afternoon where the thermometer reached 80 at Willow Brook Park.

They posed for a photo, with Sean McCauley, the winner of the race, in their midst.

East Lyme scored 18 points in the 3,200 and 20 more in the 1,600, with McCauley setting meet records in both, as the Vikings finished second in the team standings at the Class MM boys’ track & field state championship Tuesday with 98.33.

Hand won the final two events, the 4x400 relay and the triple jump, to narrowly eclipse the Vikings’ total in a high-scoring duel with 101.

“We built, like, a dynasty almost (in the distance events),” said McCauley, a junior, who led the Vikings to an ECC Division I championship a week ago in much the same fashion.

“We have freshmen and sophomores that will move up and continue to carry that dynasty and being able to compete as a team — not only have a few people that can place top three but a whole team — everyone has an impact on each other, everyone impacts everyone in some sort of way. I think it works really well with that group of guys.”

McCauley set the 1,600 record in 4 minutes, 17.50 seconds, breaking the mark of 4:19.30 held by New Fairfield’s John Ranero (2009), with McCauley and Sam Leone finishing 1-2 in the race.

He then ran 9:16.33 in the 3,200, breaking the record of 9:20.51 set by Chase Pizzonia of Darien in 2004. McCauley was engaged in a sprint to the finish with runner-up Nico Boyle of North Haven, who was the top seed.

East Lyme’s Matthew Carrier (fifth), Jilali Benjdid (sixth) and Nathan Bergman (eighth) also scored points in the event, which propelled the Vikings into the lead before Hand’s clutch finish.

East Lyme junior Tommy Matlock also won a pair of events, taking the shot put in a meet record 59 feet, 1.5 inches, and the discus at 159-2. The Vikings’ 4x800 team was first, with Benjdid, Maddox Grillo-Smith, Finian Gates and Kai Ritz setting another meet record in 7:58.10.

Fitch was eighth overall with 38 points.

Waterford’s Avery Maiese tied for first in the girls’ 1,600 in a personal-best 5:19.18. Hillhouse was the girls’ team champion with 73 points. Waterford was eighth (36), Ledyard 11th (31), Fitch 14th (24), New London 18th (14) and East Lyme 22nd (7).

“I wouldn’t want to have it any other way,” McCauley said of having Leone finish right behind him in the 1,600. “It’s really special and a lot of other teams don’t have this and it’s not gonna be like this forever. Just take advantage of it when you can.”

“At that final lap, I realized there was little chance I had of beating Sean,” said Leone, a sophomore, “so I’ve just got to stay close to him but secure second so I don’t let my team down.“

Matlock, who won the ECC, Class M, State Open and New England title in the shot put indoors with a personal-best throw of 63-00.25, qualifies this spring as “rough” to this point. He finished second in the shot put (60-6.5) and discus (151-3) at the ECC meet, with rival Chris Amy of NFA taking both victories.

On Tuesday, Matlock had a breakthrough in the discus, jumping into first place with the 159-2. He was overjoyed, bear-hugging his dad, Jim.

“I’ve had a rough season, rough season,” Matlock said. “Hopefully, I hit my peak here. I had not as well a day in shot as I wanted, but we’re fixing a lot of good things. It hasn’t been bad, I’ve just been hoping for more.

“The same thing with disc, at the beginning of the season I was throwing really well in practice. I just kind of lost it. I kind of broke through today. I’ve been working really hard with coach (Carl) Reichard. It’s frustrating. You’ve just got to calm down and believe you can do it.”

Waterford’s Maiese was quite a distance behind Avon freshman Abigal Van Hoof when she began to sprint down the backstretch of the girls’ mile. Maiese said she could hear her coaches, parents and friends cheering her on.

“It was the fourth lap that killed me a little,” Maiese said of rallying for the unusual tie, having leaned across the finish line with an identical time as Van Hoof. “But the motivation to just keep going ... it’s motivation, hearing it from all sides, hearing the people cheering and hearing my coaches from everywhere.”

New London’s Darielys Arnold was second in the girls’ long jump (17-1.75) and third in the 100 (12.73) and Fitch’s Hannah Thomas was second in the 100 hurdles (15.58) and fifth in the 300 hurdles (48.01).

Other top local finishers in the girls’ meet were Waterford’s Sarah Davidson (2nd, javelin), Waterford’s Lily Davis (2nd, 400), Ledyard’s Kate Littler (3rd, 800), Fitch’s Gracie Noland (3rd, discus), Ledyard’s Keara Opalenik (4th, high jump; 6th, 100 hurdles), Ledyard’s Isabella Schweitzer (4th, triple jump), Waterford’s Elle Dibuono (5th, 800), East Lyme’s Teagan Czaja (5th, pole vault), Ledyard’s Trinity Cason (6th, javelin) and East Lyme’s Lacey-Lee Keramidas and Ledyard’s Eva DiGarbo, tied for sixth in the pole vault.

Fitch was third in the 4x100 and Waterford fifth in the 4x400.

Other top local finishers among the boys were Fitch’s Ryan Dunning (2nd, 800), East Lyme’s Justin Blezard (3rd, pole vault), Fitch’s Julien Silva (4th, 3,200), East Lyme’s Mathew Leone (4th, 300 hurdles; 5th, 110 hurdles), Fitch’s Gianni Colebut (4th, high jump), Fitch’s Calvin McCoy (5th, 100), East Lyme’s Gates (5th, 800) and Fitch’s Zayshawn Griffin (5th, long jump).

Fitch was fourth and East Lyme fifth in the 4x100, East Lyme fifth in the 4x400 and Fitch third in the 4x800.

v.fulkerson@theday.com