AUBURN — Whenever Connor Harris or Lexi Clavet leaves the ground, it usually gives anyone with a rooting interest in the Edward Little High School track and field team cause to do the same.

Two of the most accomplished jumpers in the Red Eddies’ proud history will conclude their careers this spring, and individual state titles are clearly within landing distance.

On the heels of an injury-plagued junior outdoor campaign, Harris bounced back and then some, winning this year’s Class A indoor triple jump gold medal by nearly three feet. Clavet captured the same title on the girls’ side, outdistancing runner-up and freshman teammate Ashley Joyner by more than a foot.

“I’m back now,” Harris said. “I feel better than ever and I’m ready for outdoor.”

In fact, now that the snow has melted and the Red Eddies are free from the annual rite of running inside the school’s long, narrow corridors or sharing a track with Bates College, you could safely wager that the best is yet to come.

“With all the indoor training you do, the strength and conditioning, it shows off outdoors,” Clavet said.

Harris appreciates firsthand how quickly high expectations can fade into frustration.

He attacked the 2012 outdoor schedule as the prohibitive favorite to defend his Class A high jump title and earn the triple jump crown, too. Harris’ best triple jump of the early spring was more than nine inches farther than any other athlete in the state would travel all season.

Then came a routine but ill-fated workout on the long, steep set of stairs connecting the school with its lower level parking lot. Harris landed awkwardly on a step and rolled his left ankle.

Now acknowledging that it was a mistake, Harris tried to practice and compete through the pain, keeping it to himself.

“I didn’t bother doing anything for two or three weeks,” he said. “That’s when I really started wrapping it, and by that time it was states, KVACs, all the good meets.”

Harris wound up third in the state while Alex Shain of Sanford soared away with the triple jump championship. He couldn’t compete in either the long or high jump.

In addition to his eyebrow-raising distance of 44 feet, 10 3/4 inches in this year’s indoor triple jump, Harris doubled up by winning the high jump. He has found that the two disciplines complement one another.

“High is very, very technical, but you’re moving your body in essentially the same way. You’ve got to be quick on your feet to hop up,” Harris said. “With the triple you’ve got to learn how to do the phases right. With the high you’ve got to learn how to do the flight right.”

Clavet honed her craft with a deep EL girls’ roster that has flooded the triple jump podium in KVAC competition the past three years.

She won both the triple and long jump at the 2012 KVAC meet before settling for her second straight runner-up honors in the state triple jump.

Her breakthrough came at February’s indoor meet in Gorham.

“I’ve been stuck in the 33, 34 (foot) zone, but indoor I broke it with a 35, which I was really happy with,” Clavet said.

Both athletes say they have benefited from EL’s tradition and its coaching staff, a group that has included, in no particular order, Ryan LaRoche, Dan Campbell, Dana Staples, Rebecca Hefty and Calvin Hunter.

“We do have awesome jumping coaches. I think that’s a big part of it too,” Clavet said. “The coaches are so educational about the technique within each specific event. Obviously their technique will benefit us as well as our perseverance and determination to try our hardest.”

Harris continues to wear a thin brace around his left ankle, a reminder of his lost junior season.

More important to him than any individual acclaim are the potential team points that his one, two, perhaps even three victories could provide at the state meet.

EL is considered one of the favorites again after slipping from second to eighth a year ago.

“We’re pushing for states. Past years we’ve been second and it’s been by two points or something like that,” Harris said. “This year we’re definitely going for it. I have no doubt we’re going to win states.”

Harris welcomes the return of fellow champion jumpers Shain, Tyson Goodale of Bonny Eagle and Trevor Luck of Kennebunk.

“One of the things I learned out of all my years doing track is I love the competition. You give me someone who’s close to me and it pushes me to go farther,” he said. “I’d rather have a bunch of guys either pushing me or beating me than a meet where I’m way ahead of everybody.”

As for Clavet and the girls, who lost out to Scarborough in the final event last June, the greatest obstacle will be the loss of longtime coach Hefty, who has handed the baton to Hunter.

“It’s a different feel, but we do have a lot of promising newcomers,” Clavet said.

One thing is certain: Those first-year runners, jumpers and throwers won’t lack for role models.

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