Lewiston finished in first place with 92 points. Edward Little and Brewer were a hair back, tied for second just one point behind.
The Edward Little girls didn’t have to sweat out their victory, scoring 117 points to runner-up Lewiston’s 77. Brewer was third, while Bangor was fourth on both the boys’ and girls’ sides.
“I’m really proud of what the kids did today,” Lewiston coach Paul Soracco said. “We had them slated, both of our teams, for third. We moved some kids around, we had some kids step up, especially the boys. Amazing.”
Soracco said the boys’ team race would be close with just the discus and pole vault remaining. Those two events helped the Witches get impossibly close to the Blue Devils. Brewer swept the top six spots in the boys’ discus, with Austin Lufkin’s school-record throw of 163 feet, 7 inches topping the charts. Cayd Wortman and Michael Worcester placed third and fourth, respectively, in the pole vault — an event in which the Blue Devils failed to score a point.
Brewer also held the top six spots in boys’ shot put as well — with Lufkin winning — along with a 4×800 relay win and victories by Wortman in the 110-meter hurdles and Erick Seekins in the 100-meter dash.
“We have a great group of throwers this year,” Brewer coach Glendon Rand said. “They really work hard in practice every day. They just have a lot of spirit, lot of energy, and they really feed off each other.”
Lewiston scored many of its points on the track. Osman Doorow won both the mile and 800-meter runs, Abshir Abukar won the 300-meter hurdles, Ethan Solis won the 200-meter dash and the Blue Devils won both the 4×100 and 4×400 relays.
Solis won the 200 in a time of 23.98 seconds, besting his previous best mark by almost two seconds.
Stefan Porter pitched in with a pair of wins in the long and triple jumps.
The Edward Little boys got wins in the racewalk (Spencer Dunn), 400-meter dash (Russell Allen), two-mile run (Jacob Gamache), high jump (Zion Gurney), javelin (Cole Butler) and pole vault (Alex Thompson).
The Bangor boys got second-place finishes from Mathieu Ract in the 300 hurdles and Dominick Lizotte in the pole vault.
On the girls’ side, Soracco was resigned to the fact that the EL girls were “just so strong.” The Red Eddies won nine events, including all three relays. The 4×100 relay broke it’s personal-best time with a finish in 50.72 seconds.
Anna Beaudet anchored the relay as part of an eventful day for her individually. After edging Brewer’s Lia Johnson by .03 seconds in the 100-meter dash, she lost in another photo finish to Lewiston’s Jenny Martin in the 200 — again by .03 seconds.
“It’s crazy. It’s always close in those events,” Beaudet said. “We’re all close and we’re all friends, we always compete against each other, so it’s fun seeing each other every meet.”
Beaudet also finished second to Lewiston’s Adela Kalilwa in the triple jump. It was Beaudet’s first time competing in the event this season.
Kalilwa, meanwhile, is a veteran of the event, and also took first in the long jump, beating indoor All-New England performer Moriah Newcomb of Brewer. Rand said Newcomb has been coming along slowly in her signature event this season.
The EL girls got a pair of wins from Morgan Knowlton in the discus and shot put, as well as wins from Kailey Norcross (400), Jillian Richardson (two mile) and Britanee Nouchanthavong (javelin).
“Today showed that these kids have been working really hard all season,” EL coach Rebecca Hefty said. “There was some fantastic performances that will carry on to even bigger things next weekend.”
Like Kalilwa, Martin was also a multi-event winner, adding dual victories in the 100 and 300-meter hurdles to her 200-dash victory.
“Jenny is, to me, 110 percent in everything that she does,” Soracco said. “Sometimes we got to tell her to get off the track. She’s just a model athlete to these kids.”
Other winners for the Blue Devils were Kayla Allen in the racewalk, Taylor Chamberlain in the high jump and Mersadie Dulac in the pole vault.
Brewer got wins on the girls’ side from Hannah Smith (one mile) and Arianna Geiser (800 run). Bangor finished second and third in the girls’ high jump, Demitria Caldwell-Givens and Vaso Turlla finishing behind Lewiston’s Chamberlain. Felicity Palmer was runner-up in the girls’ 800-meter run.
Despite the easy-looking victory, Hefty still had to sweat some watching her girls take on three other solid teams.
“I always go into the meet nervous and not very confident,” Hefty said. “It’s not always about what the points look like at the end. It’s about performances, and improving every single meet that we go through. I think it’s a great set-up to go into the conference championship, and it’s always exciting to compete against your rivals.”
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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