Hurry up and wait.

That was Saturday’s itinerary, quite literally, for the Edward Little High School girls’ 4×100 relay squad.

The quartet of Jaclyn and MaryKate Masters, Ayumi Ranucci and Avery Chisholm was late in registering for its event in the New England championships at Thornton Academy’s Hill Stadium.

“So they made them run the first heat,” EL coach Rebecca Hefty said. “That’s the only place they had a lane available.”

All the Eddies did was run the fastest time by a Maine team in any class this season — a school-record 49.68 seconds.

Then came the long, agonizing process of watching five more heats.

When everyone had crossed the wire, EL was a a bronze medalist. It was the best finish by the school since Maine began sending its track athletes to the New England meet once again in the late 1990s.

“I couldn’t take it. I went to watch the javelin,” Hefty said. “Then all of a sudden in the space of five minutes I had about six missed calls on my phone. I looked and saw them running across the track and screaming, ‘We got third!'”

Maine’s best trailed only a team from Massachuetts and another from Connecticut.

By virtue of breaking the 50-second barrier, EL also qualified for the New Balance Nationals in Greensboro, N.C.

EL will run at 8:30 a.m. Friday.

“The best we’ve ever done was Lindsey Visbaras getting sixth in the triple jump her junior and senior year,” Hefty said. “This is a first for us.”

Maine distance runners also shone at the New England meet.

Bethanie Brown of Waterville won the girls’ 1,600 and 3,200 meters. Madison’s Matt McClintock won the boys’ 3,200.

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