By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

BRUNSWICK – It was a day that began pretty early for Garner LaValley.

The Edward Little senior was up at 4:30 a.m. Friday for a job interview. By the time he had to compete at the KVAC track championships at Bowdoin College in the evening, he wasn’t sure whether he’d have anything left.

“I’ve been real nervous,” said LaValley. “I just feel dead. I feel like I’m not awake, but I know it’s there.”

This was after LaValley had already won the 55-meter senior division hurdles and taken third in the senior 55-meter race.

“I mostly tried not to think about the meet because I didn’t want to get all excited and waste my energy thinking about it,” he said. ” On the bus ride, I thought about winning the whole time and tried to get myself psyched up.”

LaValley had a job interview with FedEx. It wasn’t the most opportune time for an interview, but a chance he couldn’t pass up.

“I had to get up that early because that’s when they do it,” he said. “I didn’t want to miss out on the chance. So I got up and did it and hoped I’d do alright today.”

He helped EL jump out to an early lead in the boys’ meet. Colby Brooks won the 55-meter race while LaValley took third. When LaValley won the hurdles, Chris Ash finished fourth.

“Last year, we were pretty close,” said LaValley. “We’re right at each other. We’re always fighting each other. It’s who practices the hardest that week and who’s going to win the next week. It’s real good for our team.”

Through the first 14 events Friday, EL had jumped out to a narrow 79-77 lead, but when Bashir Mohamed won the mile it propelled the Blue Devils into the top spot, 87-79, after 15 events. Lewiston expanded its lead in the high jump when Craig Thibault took first and Hossain Naji and Jeff Lucier added third and fourth respectively. That gave the Blue Devils 107 points while EL had 79.

“I came in here as the first seed,” said Mohamed of the two-mile. “So I just ran my heart out.”.

EL and Lewiston stayed neck-and-neck throughout the evening. The Red Eddies early lead was aided by Brooks’ win in the 55 and 200-meter races. Ash also added a sixth in the long jump and a fifth in the 200. Jake Dubois took first in the junior division shot while Grady Burns took fourth.

The EL girls also had some strong performances and were second after 10 events, trailing Waterville 80 to 38.5. Freshman Muriel Schwinn won the long jump and also took fifth in the 55-meter for the Red Eddies.

“I was pretty surprised,” said Schwinn about her win in the long jump. “It was my PR by a lot. My PR was 14-6 and I had 15-9. So I was pretty happy.”

EL also got a fourth from Kelsey Pettengill and a fifth from Angie Giorgetti in the long jump.

“I knew we had a lot of strong girls in the sprints and in the jumps,” said Schwinn. “So we knew we had to do really well in them to get our points.”

Pettengill was also third in the 55-meter and fourth in the 200. EL’s Briana Levesque and Ashley DeRocher took fourth and fifth respectively in the high jump while Amanda Burgess took fourth in the 800.

Despite, the EL’s boys’ strong start Lewiston was also making some noise and some history. Lucier, a sophomore, set a new KVAC mark in the 400 in the junior division. His photo-finish, eking out Mt. Ararat’s Kurt Prescott, in 53.84 beat the mark (54.62) set by Dan Moreau in 1999.

“My coach told me that he thought I had it and then a friend that ran that heat with me told me that I got it,” said Lucier. “I wasn’t expecting to get the conference record.”

Lucier was seeded fourth in the fourth sectional, but as Lucier made a final push in his race, he could sense a strong finish. Lucier also added a win in the 200 meter..

“I like being under pressure,” said Lucier. “I like the big meets.”

Mohamed was on the 4×800 relay team that took fourth for Lewiston. That took some steam out of him and he finished second in the mile, but he felt strong for the two-mile.

“The two-mile I felt good,” said Mohamed. “I had energy in the two-mile. I just ran my own race.”

Lucier and Mohamed were joined at the top of the podium as they chased EL’s early lead by Naji. He won the 55-hurdles in the junior division finishing in 8.31. Craig Thibeault was sixth in that race and also took fourth in the 400 behind Lucier. Lewiston also got a fourth from Matt Cyr in the 55 meter and a pair of second-place finishes from Kurt Thibeault in the 400 and the 200. George Foster took second in the 800 followed by MohamedAbdirazak in fifth..

The Lewiston girls got a fourth-place from Lea Morin in the 55-meter race and a second in the 200.

Other notables included Leavitt’s Ben Parkin taking second in the junior division 55-meter race. The Hornets also got a second from Jeff Ramos in the long jump. Mt. Blue’s Jordan Daniel took fourth in the two-mile and fifth in the mile.