By ROBERTO GONZALEZ
LAKEVILLE - Senior Pat Martha had quite a bit of motivation Saturday in the boys race.
First, he wanted to lead his Choate-Wallingford team to its fourth consecutive Founders League title. Second, watching was former teammate Jonathan Hamilton, who was also the holder of the course record.
Martha didn't disappoint. He broke the course record, finishing the 3.1-mile race in 16:47 and led Choate to a successful title defense.
Choate won with 41 points, followed by Hotchkiss (59) and Avon Old Farms (94).
The Hotchkiss course is challenging with several long hills, but Martha easily broke the old record, which was 16:58, set by Hamilton in 1996. Hamilton graduated from Choate two years later.
"He set these goals for me," said Martha, who is from Wallingford. "For me to accomplish this in front of him, well I'm really happy about that."
Hamilton was given the honor of firing the starter's pistol and was confident his record would fall Saturday.
"I haven't met anybody who works as hard as he does," Hamilton said. "I can't think of anybody else better to break the record than him. I'm very happy for him."
Martha was familiar with the course, but his last run at Hotchkiss was difficult, because he wasn't feeling too well.
"I ran it two weeks ago and I was pretty sick," Martha said. "I finished about 30 seconds slower, but I knew today I could do it. Plus I had the team behind me. They are the driving force."