LEWISTON – The question was never if, but by how much. The answer, no matter on which side of the river you live, was a larger number than anyone expected.

Edward Little dominated almost every running event, allowing Lewiston just eight points on the track, on its way to a convincing 118-43 win over the Blue Devils at Don Roux Field on Wednesday.

“The biggest thing for us, with the season being so short, is to give everyone specific goals and to have them strive for those goals at every meet,” said EL coach Dan Campbell. “We still have some kids that need to qualify for the state meet.”

With the Red Eddies’ overwhelming advantage, it would have been easy to hold back and experiment with a few things, but Campbell knew better.

“I tried that once,” said Campbell. “Almost 10 years ago, I came in here and held back, and Lewiston beat us by one point. I will never let that happen again if I can help it, so there was no easing off in that sense today.”

That was apparent from the beginning. Edward Little took first place in 15 of the 16 events in which it entered athletes, including every track event. Will Claxton led the Eddies with two first-place finishes, one in the 100-meter dash and the other in the 200. Jackson Keene also won twice, outthrowing the competition in the discus and the javelin.

“We tell the kids from the beginning of the season to always do the best that they can against Lewiston,” said Campbell. “I know that if the tables were flipped they would run their hardest against us. That’s how teams get better, by facing quality competition, and to run anything less than your best is almost demeaning to your opponent.”

For Lewiston, the meet wasn’t a total washout. Jereme Madore took two events for the Blue Devils, the long jump and the triple jump, and Matt Cyr just missed qualifying for the state meet in the pole vault.

The biggest thing we told everyone coming into the meet was to try and run off of EL’s times,” said Lewiston coach Rick Meyers. “They set a good pace and several runners were going after personal records today.”

“They are heading in the right direction,” Campbell said of the Lewiston track program. “They all came out today and exhibited good sportsmanship, the numbers are going up, and they had an intensity about them.”

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