BATH — There was a huge fight between the Edward Little and Lewiston boys’ track and field teams during the awards ceremony at Saturday’s KVAC championship.

Relax. It isn’t what you think.

Any physical contact was merely a good-natured jostling and jockeying for position as 70 athletes mounted the makeshift, seven-step podium at McMann Field for a joint victory photo.

Yes, in the craziest of all possible finishes, two neighboring schools that share a now centuries-old sports rivalry also must share a league championship trophy, for now.

They tied. Dead even. Never happened before, and if they relived the same meet two dozen times, it probably wouldn’t happen again.

Old-timers with a personal stake in the relationship snapped photos and shrugged shoulders.

“Never seen it in my 30-plus years,” said longtime EL cross country and track personality Dan Campbell, now an assistant coach.

“Kind of ironic, huh? The rivals,” said Calvin Hunter, EL indoor track coach and an assistant with the girls’ outdoor program.

After the final photo was snapped, Red Eddies hugged Blue Devils and Blue Devils bumped fists with Red Eddies.

Thanks to a classy gesture by EL’s acting coach, Dana Staples, there wasn’t even a dispute about temporary custody of the available trophy until the conference is able to issue another one.

“Let Lewiston take it,” ordered Staples, who was filling in while Ryan LaRoche attended to a family commitment.

And why not? The title is EL’s astonishing ninth straight and Lewiston’s first since the two schools emigrated to the KVAC from the SMAA a decade ago.

The 125-point deadlock was every bit the game of inches that the scoreboard indicates.

“It went back and forth all day,” Lewiston coach T.J. Niles said. “We were basically ahead almost the whole meet, and then EL scored like 23 points in 300-meter hurdles.”

Twenty-four, to be exact, with the trio of Bryan Ring, Darnnell Hairston and Aswan Duncan sweeping the top three positions.

Hairston had classmate Ring’s number for much of their parallel careers but sat out the first month of this season.

His return three weeks ago gave Ring the healthy competition he craved while providing sophomore Duncan with another role model in the event.

“We started off a little slow, and then the last couple weeks we’ve been pushing each other. Especially me and this guy (Hairston) right here,” Ring said. “This guy used to kill me all the time.”

Their exploits afforded EL a slim lead, one Lewiston wiped out with its own 1-2-3 sweep, not to mention fifth and sixth, in shot put.

Rudy Pandora waited until his final throw of the afternoon to unleash a personal record of 51 feet, 3 ¼ inches, flying past teammate Michael Nazaroff to land the title.

“I was having an off day and Naz was going to beat me. I got scared and that helped me,” Pandora said. “Going into my last throw he was ahead by two inches. I’ve got to listen to my coach and get this form right. My form was not too good.”

Leo Gaghan, sidelined from workouts for most of the week due to injury, was third for Lewiston. John Peters and Nick Ross also picked up points for the Devils.

The ebb and flow and exchange of points from there left Lewiston believing that it needed to win the final running event — the 4×400 relay — to have a shot at the title.

“They got third and it was the best time they’ve run this season by about eight seconds,” Niles said. “You couldn’t ask for any more. They ran their hearts out. They knew the title was on the line.”

EL’s foursome finished second in the 4×400 for a net gain of two points.

That made Lewiston the leader in the clubhouse by a deuce. The Devils could only watch while EL’s Connor Harris and Bradley Morrissette chased those points and perhaps more in the high jump.

Harris finished sixth to make up the difference and preserve a streak that dates back to 2004. Morrissette was eighth, one spot out of the money.

“It definitely doesn’t feel the same,” EL junior Lucas Bourget said. “It’s cool though. I like the Lewiston kids. We do a lot of runs together. The distance teams, we’re really tight. If we had to tie with any team I’d want it to be them.”

Bourget won the race walk and was second to Messalonskee’s Harlow Ladd in the 3,200 for EL. He passed Lewiston’s Mohamed Barre with about a lap to go, claiming two points that he suspected would be big.

Nobody could have imagined how huge, although Lewiston’s coach had an inkling.

“We talked about it. I told them how it was going to be a close meet and it was going to come down to who had the best day,” Niles said. “Luck’s got to be on your side too.”

Pandora was a double winner for the Devils, also dominating the discus.

Lewiston’s 4×100 quartet of Drew Olehowski, Hassan Mohamed, Ricardo Juco and Mostafa Elfaham won its race.

“They were seeded 18 points ahead of us,“ Niles said of EL. “I thought if we won all three relays we could come within a point of them. All the little things is where it happened.”

Nathaniel Hernandez was EL‘s other individual champion, winning the javelin.

Waterville cruised to the Class B title. Leavitt’s Jordan Hersom was second in the 400 meters.

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