LEWISTON – Even a wrong turn and a move normally reserved for the outdoor track season couldn’t slow Edward Little freshman Nick Kazar down enough for his closest pursuers to catch him.

After a wrong turn at a fence that left him on the wrong side, Kazar hurdled the obstacle at the urging of Lewiston’s Tyson Morgan, the runner in second place at the time, and still finished in a near-course record time of 17:45, well ahead of eventual runner-up, Matt Cavanaugh of Camden Hills. Morgan finished third.

“I took the turn and then heard someone say to jump the fence,” said Kazar. “I didn’t think they were talking to me, and then I realized where I was and just hopped over the fence to get back on the course. It was no big deal, really.”

The fence and the turn were just two of the many obstacles runners faced on Friday on a tough Lewiston High School cross country course that crossed itself twice, had several steep, short hills and mixed surfaces from grass to gravel to pavement and back.

“It was a tough course,” said Kazar. I like hills, though, which helped a lot, and the hills were shorter, which made recovery time that much quicker.”

Despite his first-place finish, the EL boys finished four points out of first place, which on Friday belonged to Camden Hills.

“This was a solid race for us,” said Camden Hills coach Patrick Kelly. “They beat us last week at another race, and to come back and win this one is good for the young program that we have. The guys are just starting to learn to give it their all the whole race, but that will come with time.”

Lewiston placed well in the team totals as well, finishing just behind Edward Little with 49 points to EL’s 45. Morgan, Speedy Mohamed and Nate Gosselin led the Blue Devils’ strong finish.

EL girls cruise

Where the Edward Little boys came up short against Camden Hills, the EL girls did not, flip-flopping their scores from a week ago to take the overall girls’ meet by a score of 28-32.

Carolyn Large and Hannah Giasson of Edward Little led the charge for the Eddies with a second and third-place finish, respectively.

Like in the boys’ race, the winner came from the second-place team, Camden Hills. Becca Twadell crossed the line in 20:54 on the 3.05-mile course.

“I passed the second girl on the first hill,” said Twadell. “After that, it was hard to pace myself with no one around.”

Twadell finished more than a minute ahead of Large, who also came in well ahead of Giasson, who was racing in her first ever race.

“I was very surprised, pleasantly surprised,” said EL coach Dan Campbell. “It was a good turn around from last week, and I was impressed with how they performed on rest like this.”

Lewiston was the only other team to score in the meet, finishing with 89 points.