The Fort Dorchester High boys' 4x400 meter relay team took the state 4A championship in that event Saturday in a performance that erased any lingering memories of a dreadfully disappointing effort on the same track a year earlier.
The quartet entered the state championships in 2014 as one of the top 4x400 high school teams in the state, but a dropped baton during one exchange ended the Patriots' hopes of a state title.
Despite the fumbled baton hand-off, the team would still place seventh in that race. But the damage was done, and from that point they vowed not to make the same miscue in 2015. The team won both their regional and 4A state qualifier, and they saved their best performance of the season for the state championship, winning the 4x400 with a time of 3:19.31.
Junior Olin Ravenel set the tone and tempo for the Patriots in the first leg, admitting that he went out "faster than I usually do."
Ravenel would get out to a lead neither he nor his teammates would surrender.
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