Anchor DeAndre James took the baton from teammate Ian Godfrey well after the leaders, but with a burst of speed in the closing 100 meters passed Belfast’s Bryce Swisher at the line for second place, securing for Leavitt the KVAC Class B Championship with 109 points. It was the Hornets’ first conference championship in 20 years.

“My big goal is, I don’t like to lose,” Jordan said. “I usually put myself in position to pass someone when I get the chance. He had half a track on me and I could tell he was dying. He’s a good runner, but you could see in his form, it started to break down a little bit. I had a little bit left in me and gave it my all.”

Waterville finished seventh in the relay and closed with 102 points. Belfast finished in third with 76, Lawrence came in fourth with 66 and Winslow rounded out the top five with 53 points.

“We knew had a shot, we knew anything can happen,” Leavitt coach Jamie Juntura said. “We tried to do our best to prepare for that. We dropped the baton in the (4×100), which was a huge blow to us, but the rest of our team really stepped up and brought it up.”

Leavitt racked up points in the field events when Billy Bedard and Caleb Bowen finished one-two in the long jump. Bedard’s jump was 20-07, nearly a foot-and-a-half better than Bowen’s. Bowen won the triple jump. He was the only competitor in Class B to eclipse 40 feet, leaping 41-02.75. Noah Hutchinson won the high jump at 5-10, and Nathaniel Goulette came in third. Joe Baumann came in third in the pole volt. Anthony Degone finished fifth in the javelin.

Waterville won the javelin and had five of the top six in the discus throwers.

Baumann finished third in the 300 meter hurdles and fourth in the 110 meter hurdles. Bowen and Bedard finished second fourth respectfully in the 100 meter dash. Ryan Pratt finished fifth in the 1600 meter race walk. Jarod Farrar finished in fifth in the 1600 meter run.

In Class B girls, Belfast won with 96 points with Lincoln Academy coming in second with 90. Lawrence just squeaked out third with 74 points as Waterville came in fourth with 71. Camden Hills came in fifth with 58 points.

Leavitt finished in 8th with 43.5 points. They took second in the 4×100 meter race, Nicole Daigle came in fourth in the 100 meter dash. Julia Labbe notched a third place finish in the 3200 meter run. Allie Belaire finished third in the javelin. Ashley Pratt finished second in the pole vault.

The Spruce Mountain program swept the 1,600 meter race walk Emily White won with a time of 8:38.06 while Trevor Judd crossed the line with a time of 7:00.26. The boys finished 12th overall with 13 points and the girls finished 15th with 12 points.

Red Eddies roll in Class A

Edward Little dominated the Class A girls’ competition with 183.5 points, beating out rival Lewiston at 119.5.

“We have a lot of veteran girls, they lead by example and their expectation is to improve every week,” EL coach Nick Keene said. “Even if we do have a lead, their mindset is, ‘I want to do my best, I want to PR, and I want to improve personally.'”

The Red Eddies were strong in the 100-meter hurdles, taking second through sixth positions behind Lewiston’s Jennifer Martin, who won in a time of 15.80. Anna Beaudet came in second in the 100-meter dash. Kailey Norcross came in first in the 400-meter dash, beating Beaudet by three seconds. They finished back-to-back again in the 200-meter dash with Beaudet in second and Norcross in third.

In the relays, EL beat out Lewiston by a half a second in the 4×100 for first and also won the 4×400.

In the field, Morgan Knowlton took first in the shot put, Britanee Nouchanthavong won the javelin throw while Lauren Berube won the pole vault..

Jennifer Martin won two additional events for Lewiston — the 300 meter hurdles and 200-meter dash. Kayla Allen broke the KVAC 1,600-meter race walk record with a time of 7:28.94, and came in third in the 3,200-meter run. Adela Kalilwa won the long jump, was second in the triple jump and came in third in the 100-meter dash. Taylor Chamberlain came in second in the high jump while Mersadie Dulac came in second in the pole vault.

Johorey Abdirahman came in fifth in the 800 meter dash.

“Both teams had a great day today,” Lewiston coach Paul Soracco said. “We had some amazing performances with Jennifer (Martin) winning three events which was incredible, Kayla Allen setting a new record. We had Osman (Doorow) have one of his best days. Everybody stepped up today, it was tough day to compete with the heat … It was an exciting day for the kids.”

Rounding out the top five in the team competition were Skowhegan and Brunswick each having 82 points for third while Messalonskee came in fifth.

Oxford Hills came in seventh with 36 points and Mt. Blue seventh with 26. Maighread Laliberte won the discus for Oxford Hills and came in second in the shot put.

The Messalonskee Eagles ran away with the boys Class A Title with 163 points. Edward Little came in second with 97.83 points and Lewiston in third with 94.5 points. Rounding out the top five were Brunswick with 84.33 points and Cony with 72 points.

The Eagles won eight different events.

Spencer Dunn and Matt Syphers finished one-two for EL in the 1,600-meter race walk. Cole Butler won the javelin while finishing in fifth in the discus. Jacob Gamache finished second in in the 3,200-meter run and third in the 1,600-meter race walk.

The Red Eddies were without a key athlete on the boys side after Zion Gurney suffered an injury.

“He tore his ACL last week,” Keene said. “That docked us some points, but you obviously have to know how to win, know to be in second and know how to compete. Their mindset is the same as the girls, they were trying to improve every time out and they don’t worry about the end result. My hat goes off to them, they worked hard and they are here for a reason.”

Osman Doorow won the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs for Lewiston. The Blue Devils came in second in both the 4×100 and 4×400 relays. Stefan Porter won the the boys triple jump and took third in the long jump.

Oxford Hills came in sixth with 54 points and Mt. Blue ninth with 25. The Vikings did well in the team relays, winning the 4×100 and placing third in the 4×800. Dawson Stevenson came in third in the 100-meter dash. Silas Gordon came in third in the pole vault.

Nate Pratt-Holt won the long jump for Mt. Blue while coming in second in the triple jump.

nfournier@sunjournal.com