BREWER – With one fluid glide across a concrete circle, one powerful pump of his tattooed right arm, and one guttural bellow, Nick Coffin ended all the shot put suspense on Friday afternoon.

An hour later, with finals yet to come (but his best throw of the day, a solid 50-foot, 1-inch effort, behind him), Coffin was still lingering around the shot put area.

Make that in the shot put area: the 6-foot-3, 265-pound Brewer senior had traded his 12-pound shot for one end of the tape measure, and was helping officiate the event as beginners whirled and grunted … and wound up 20 or 30 feet short of his winning heave.

Coffin, whose Brewer teammates piled up 135 points to outdistance runner-up Ellsworth’s 75 in a five-team meet at Brewer’s Pendleton Street track, admitted he really didn’t intend to officiate.

“No one was around, so I picked [the tape] up,” said Coffin, one of the state’s top throwers. “At least I know I’m gonna do a good job.”

Orono scored 65 to take third in the boys meet while Hermon had 51 and Sumner of East Sullivan tallied 46.

Brewer’s Jon Dearborn won the 200 and 400 and Ellsworth’s Adam MacBeth took wins in the long jump and 110 high hurdles.

In the girls meet, Brewer piled up 177 points while Orono won a close three-way battle for second with 60. Hermon had 59, Ellsworth scored 58 and Sumner finished with 17.

Hermon’s Chantelle Haggerty emerged as one of the meet’s stars, winning the pole vault, 400 and 200. Brewer’s Rachel Dowling captured the javelin and shot put, while Orono’s Maria Millard took the 300 hurdles and high jump.

Despite winning the shot put by more than eight feet, Coffin was disappointed with his overall effort: He failed to make the finals in the discus, and didn’t improve on his personal best throw in the shot (51-3).

“I think [my mood] is frustration more than anything because I just like to improve,” Coffin said. “If I want to be a competitor at the state meet, I’ve got to be throwing 53, 54 [feet]. And if I’m not doing it now, then I’ve got to be doing it pretty soon.”

That sense of urgency permeated Friday afternoon’s meet: After a late spring thaw scrapped everyone’s opening meet, coaches are scrambling to get athletes qualifying times in time for the championship meets.

Brewer coach Chris Libby said field-event competitors actually got more hands-on technique practice because meets were lost. But the runners are behind schedule.

“We’ve got a lot of kids who have only raced twice now, and they’ve only the chance to run [their events] twice more before [Penobscot Valley Championships],” Libby said.

Ellsworth star Steve DeWitt’s got fewer chances than most: He sat out his second straight meet on Friday due to injury.

DeWitt began the season nursing tendinitis in his left knee. Two weeks ago he developed tendinitis in his right Achilles tendon while working clearing brush.

“I’m in pretty good shape,” said DeWitt, who expects to run in Ellsworth’s meet next Friday. “I’ve been aqua jogging every day I haven’t been able to run.”

Still, it has been frustrating for the defending Class B champ at 800, 1,600 and 3,200.

“I know that it’s not permanent,” he said. “It should pass pretty soon. I’m just trying to stay patient and wait it out.”

One athlete who figures she’s actually a bit ahead of the game is Orono’s Millard.

A year ago, Millard’s season started after the rest of the Red Riots had been practicing for three weeks.

“I went to France on a school trip,” the Orono junior said. “I ate croissants and developed “croissant belly,” then worked back into it during the season.”

On Friday she leaped 5-2 in the high jump and battled a stiff wind to a 49.41 time in the hurdles.

Brewer’s Heather Jovanelli, who missed the Witches first meet while vacationing in Florida, made impressive seasonal debut: She ran a 2:23 split in the 3,200 relay, followed that up with a 2:24.93 in the 800, and finished her day with a 1:04 split in the 1,600 relay.

“The girl obviously didn’t take a vacation from running,” Libby said. “She may not have been here, but she obviously was running hard.”