AUGUSTA – This meet would settle things once and for all.

After splitting during the regular season, Friday’s Mountain Valley Conference track meet was an opportunity to serve as the rubber match between the Lisbon and Hall-Dale girls.

“The coach had said that Hall-Dale was so close to that point that if we had a staring contest, whoever blinked first would lose,” said senior Jasmine Clark.

Lisbon had lost a close meet with Hall-Dale during the regular season, minus one of its top runners. The Greyhounds later beat the Bulldogs by an equally narrow margin. When Lisbon discovered Friday that members of the Hall-Dale team would not be competing because of a conflict with a band event, including Laura Peterson, the Greyhounds knew the meet was theirs for the taking.

“When I realized that a few of the Hall-Dale team weren’t here, I definitely felt like we had it,” said Clark. “It was a little disappointing. I was hoping in the end we could see who really had it. But we were in the lead by a good amount of points. So I feel like if they were here, we could have still had it.”

The Lisbon girls’ claimed their second straight title with 153 points. Livermore Falls was second with 79 while Winthrop and Dirigo followed with 68 and 62 points respectively.

Lisbon also repeated on the boys side in equally convincing fashion. The boys finished with 150.50 points while Winthrop was second with 95. Telstar and Mountain Valley followed with 77.50 and 62.50 respectively.

“It’s pretty much a surprise from the beginning of the season,” said senior Tyler Clark, who was named the boys’ most outstanding runner with wins in the 1,600 and 3,200. “Our goal was to win this, but we weren’t sure if we’d have the numbers for it, but it all came through for us.”

Tyler Clark, a two-time state champ in both events, dominated once again and cruised to victory. He ran 4:39.86 in the 1,600 and 10:32.82 in the 3,200.

“I wasn’t really looking for a time,” he said. “I was just looking to win and make sure we kept our seeds. I think if I really wanted to, I could have gone for good times, but there wasn’t really a point to exhausting myself.”

In addition to Clark, the boys’ also got wins from Cam Bubar in the 800 and Zachary Tupper in the pole vault. The Greyhounds also dominated a number of events. In the 800, Mike Bolduc was second and Art Stambach sixth behind Bubar. Aaron Cloutier joined Clark with a fourth in the 1,600 and second in the 3,200. Jared Williams took second in the 110 hurdles and Bubar was fourth. Behind Tupper in the pole vault, Dan Gil-Romero was second while Michael Beaulieu was fifth.

The Lisbon girls got a pair of wins from Rebekah Sullivan in the shot and high jump. Kelly Bourgoin won the 3,200 and was fifth in the 800 and second in the 1,600. Sara Adams won the race walk while Kelly Baickle was second and Kim Tarr and Sierra Guay took fourth and fifth. Lisbon also dominated in the pole vault with Katrina McKay taking first and Traelynne Hinckley and Baickle in second and fourth respectively. Barbara Martin was also second in the shot behind Sullivan. Jasmine Clark won the 400 and was fourth in the 200 and 800.

“I was expecting to get first in the 400,” said Clark. “I was hoping to survive in the 800 and to get fourth was pretty cool.”

Livermore Falls’ Rebecca Leclerc was named the girls’ top performer. She won the 100, the 200 and was on the 4×100 relay that took first.

“I haven’t run in a while because I had a calf injury,” said Leclerc. “So I’d only been practicing for a week and a half. I went into it thinking ‘Don’t get your hopes up.’ But I wanted to win really bad, especially the 4×100 just because it’s a team thing. So I tried to stay pretty calm and not get nervous.”

Dirigo’s Katherine Gagne was also one of the meet’s top performers. She celebrated her 18th birthday with wins in the 800 and the 1,600. She also finished third in the triple jump and helped the Cougars’ 4×400 relay take second. The 800 was a momentous win since she’d finished second in that MVC event each year.

“It was my goal the whole season,” said Gagne. “That’s what (Dirigo coach) Donna (Gilbert) has had me training for most. My first goal was to get the school record which was 2:28, and I got that. Then I just wanted to win this because I’d never done it before. There always had been a big upset.”

Winthrop’s Kris Cooper won the long jump and 110 hurdles while Telstar’s Frankie DelDuca claimed the triple jump, the 100 and the 200 and was second in the long jump. His 22.97 in the 200 was a personal best and meet record.

“I had high hopes,” said DelDuca, a sophomore.” It’s the MVCs and you want to compete with all the best kids and compare yourself. I’ve been getting over bronchitis. So my expectations kind of dropped but once the competition kicked in, my adrenaline kind of took over.”