Heartbreak fueled them, talent carried them and desire pushed them over the top.

Paced by a stellar 77 from senior Nick Levesque in his final competitive high school round of golf, St. Dom’s captured its first ever Class C state team golf title Saturday at Natanis Golf Club in Vassalboro.

“He was awesome today,” St. Dom’s coach Kevin Cullen said. He didn’t play well in the individual qualifier for the Western Maine Conference and today was his last match of his high school career. He was solid all day.”

Richard Paradis, the team’s No. 1 golfer all season, settled in with an 80 on the Tomahawk Course, as did C.J. Bergeron. Greg Labonte fired an 84 to round out the top four scores, which added together for a 321.

Wiscasset finished a distant second with 368, followed by Winthrop at 375. Katahdin was fourth at 376, and Telstar came in fifth at 377.

The Saints benefited this season from playing in the arguably the toughest conference in the state.

“If NYA had been here, they would have finished second,” Cullen said. “It’s too bad.”

To back that up, fellow WMC power won the Class B state crown playing on the Arrowhead Course at Natanis. Thornton Academy took the Class A crown followed by Cheverus. Had St. Dom’s competed with those schools, the Saints would have placed third overall in Class A.

“The strength of this team is the depth,” Cullen said. “We had nine golfers who could all shoot in the low-40s or better, and three of those guys consistently in the high-30s.”

The Saints last year came ever so close to qualifying for the state team tournament, losing in the WMC qualifier to NYA. This year, it was the Saints’ turn to hoist the hardware.

The scary thing for the rest of Class C golf? Aside from Levesque, St. Dom’s returns the meat of its lineup.

“I feel lucky,” Cullen said. “This team is a great group, and it’s deep. We have any of the nine guys that could have played out here today.”