It was a busy week for area track and field teams. With conference championships little more than three weeks away, athletes are starting to ramp up for the bigger meets.

On Tuesday, the Monmouth girls edged Boothbay in a five-team meet at Wiscasset High School. Izzy Lewis (200), Ashleigh Hartford (400), Sammy Grandahl (high jump) Sidney Wilson (javelin) and the 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams led the Mustangs with gold in their events. The Mustang boys finished third behind Boothbay and Hall-Dale.

On Thursday, Lewiston swept a six-team KVAC meet at Winslow. Kayla Allen (race walk), Farhiyo Aden (3,200) and Adela Kalilwa (long jump, triple jump) led the Blue Devils to a 10.5-point victory over Winslow in the girls’ meet. The boys dominated the rest of the field thanks to Hassan Mohamed (100, 200), Osman Doorow (800, 1,600), Corey Martin (300 hurdles), Farhan Abdillahi (3,200), Stefan Porter (triple jump), and the 4×100 and 4×800 relay teams.

Also on Thursday, the Lisbon boys won a five-team meet at Oxford Hills. Tyler Bard (race walk), Charles Adams (110 hurdles, 300 hurdles)), Nicholas Rogers (100), Austin Bedford (400), Cam Ramich (pole vault), Jordan Glover (long jump, triple jump), Quincy Thompson (shot put) and the 4×400 relay team stood atop the podium. Oxford Hills was fourth, St. Dom’s fifth. Brunswick won the girls’ meet.

Edward Little swept Friday’s KVAC quad meet at Waterville. The girls tallied an even 100 points on the strength of victories by Anna Beaudet (100, triple jump), Victoria Beliveau (race walk), Katie Ferrara (300 hurdles), Eraleena Hairston (discus), Rebecca Stacey-Outten (shot put) and the 4×100 relay team.

The EL boys held off Messalonskee with Hunter Martin (100, 200), Spencer Dunn (race walk), Cameron Gagne (high jump), Cole Butler (javelin), Bradley Morisette (long jump, triple jump), Brandon Binette (pole vault) and the 4×100 relay team leading the charge.

Deceiving looks

The record for the Lisbon softball team is a bit deceiving. The Greyhounds are 1-5, but out of those four loses, only one was by a large margin.

That came against Madison Friday. Prior to that, Lisbon had lost three games by one run and another by four runs. That’s including last week’s 4-3 loss at Oak Hill, which slipped away in the bottom of the seventh when the Raiders rallied for the win.

“The potential of this team is amazing,” said Lisbon coach Terri Trudell Tlumac. “It’s a matter of gelling it all together and getting the timely hits and having the defense on and producing when needed.”

Lisbon has just two seniors Jenna Clifford and Olivia Harrington. The rest of the squad are juniors, still trying to improve upon last year’s 3-14 record. Despite the hard-luck losses, the Greyhounds are trying to hang in there and turn their fortunes around.

“We talk about the mental stamina to make it through seven innings,” Tlumac said. “We talk about that frequently. They come ready to play every game. They come out and work hard. We’ve just been that little bit short. We keep thinking positive and moving forward is what we need to do as a team.”

Improved Hornets

Leavitt is already making strides toward bettering last season. The Hornets finished the year 5-11 and have already won three games this spring. Leavitt is currently 3-3 and in the playoff chase in Western B.

“If’s definitely better compared to last year,” said senior outfielder Emily Perkins. “I think the attitude is better too. We had talent last year. We have talent this year, but we have a different attitude.”

Leavitt is playing with some confidence despite being a young club. The Hornets feature seven sophomores and a freshmen. Both pitchers are rookies to the varsity level, sophomore Ashley Kelley and freshman Abbie Robertson.

Still, the Hornets have an experienced core of seniors leading the way. Annie Castonguay, Sierre Santomango, Nicole Bradley, Melissa Richardson and Perkins are all season veterans. Juniors Morgan Knowlton and Livie Gilbert are also back.

That extra seasoning and confidence is making a difference so far this season. Leavitt has scored 58 runs through six games. That included a 33-0 win over Morse and a 15-3 pounding of Maranacook. They also beat Erksine 5-2.. Their losses have been against quality teams like Gardiner, Lincoln Academy and Oceanside.

“Even when we’ve been down, the games that we lost, they’ve fought until the end,” said Leavitt coach Pete Higgins. “We had a good last inning against Oceanside (a 6-3 loss).  We scored some runs. We left people on base. We’re in the games. It’s just a matter of getting ride of some of the errors.”

Cougars scuffling at plate

Mt. Blue baseball coach Dave Pepin hopes a week-long homestand will be the medicine the Cougars need to get their bats going.

In a 3-1 loss to Brunswick and a 3-2, eight-inning defeat at Lewiston this past week, Mt. Blue got great pitching from senior Cam Abbott and junior Colton Lawrence but frequently fell 90 feet short of helping them out.

“We left six guys on third base in the eight innings,” Pepin said after the Lewiston game. “We had one run we scored, and they kind of gave us that one. Brunswick it was the same way. We could have had that game easily. We just couldn’t get a clutch hit.”

Abbott, Andrew Pratt and Richie Storer are the only seniors for Mt. Blue, which has four sophomores on the roster and three in the starting lineup.

Mt. Blue is batting below .200 as a team, according to the coach.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Pepin said. “We have a lot of young guys in there. We start three guys that started JV last year. It’s a big step up for them, and right now their bat speed ability is not there.”

Edward Little, Skowhegan and Cony visit Hippach Field this week.

The Red Eddies are one of the teams ahead of Mt. Blue (3-4) in a crowded Class A East playoff race, while the Cougars need wins to stay ahead of the Indians and Rams and get off the tournament bubble.

“We’ve got one big one against Oxford Hills (a 1-0 win in which Lawrence threw a two-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts), but it’s going to take more than that,” Pepin said.

Strong out of the gate

It’s almost an impossible accomplishment, with the prevailing rules that require specific amounts of rest, but Nate Gagne was the starting pitcher in Monmouth’s first five baseball games.

Gagne also registered four of the five victories for undefeated Monmouth, capped by a near-perfect game against Hall-Dale. The Bulldogs mustered two singles with two out in the seventh before Gagne slammed the door in a 6-0 shutout.

“He hadn’t gone more than three innings,” Monmouth coach Eric Palleschi said. “I don’t think he’d even pitched three.”

Senior left-hander Kyle Fletcher was warming up in the bullpen even as Gagne threatened to make school history.

The southpaw actually has been Monmouth’s ace since his freshman year. After a season of relief stints, Fletcher finally got to play the opening act Friday and notched a win at Spruce Mountain, moving Monmouth to 6-0.

“The game will dictate what we do. We’ve got the arms to use, and we might as well use them,” Palleschi said. “We have a plan going into it, and if we have to adjust, we adjust our plan. We’re getting into the meat of our schedule.”