ORONO – In terms of team successes, the only big splashes representatives of Eastern Maine were able to make at Saturday’s soggy Class B track and field state championship meet were in pools of water accumulating on the track and the turf.

Individually, however, the victories were as plentiful as the puddles which formed all over the University of Maine’s Beckett Family complex.

Distance specialists Ben Shorey of Ellsworth and Melissa Blackstone of Presque Isle led the East charge as both broke state records in their respective events: The 1,600-meter racewalk and 800 run.

Teamwise, it was a West sweep as the Greely girls of Cumberland Center dethroned defending champ Hampden Academy and the Scarborough boys easily cruised to their second straight title. The best finishes by East teams came from the Ellsworth boys (third, 44) and Winslow girls (third, 52).

The Greely girls outpointed runner-up Gray-New Gloucester 77-62 while the Scarborough boys hammered the opposition for the second straight year, scoring 92 to far outdistance runner-up Gorham (49).

What Scarborough was to the rest of the boys field, Shorey was to his racewalk competitors.

The Eagles’ senior blew away the field with an eye-popping time of six minutes, 8.08 seconds to smash his previous mark of 6:28.32, set only a week ago in Caribou.

“This is better weather to race in for me because I don’t overheat. The rain stopped and there was no breeze. It was nice and cool so I could go fast and go all out,” said Shorey, who is competing in two national meets at North Carolina and Virginia in two weeks. “I was just hoping for just under 6:10. … I still think I can go under six.”

Shorey and his coach are going to check on submitting the time as a national record.

“We don’t think there is one right now for high school,” he explained. “The mile record is 6:11 so we think with the conversion, I might be under that.”

A national record and a track scholarship to the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Not bad for a guy who never competed in a track event before high school.

“I’d never even heard of the racewalk before they asked me to try it,” explained Shorey, who said the only thing he felt bad about was not being able to compete in more events due to a foot injury that made it painful for him to run.

Saturday began on a down note for Blackstone, who came into the meet with a firm goal of running the 1,600 fast enough to eclipse all three state records, the best of which is Jenn Moreau’s Class A mark of 4:57.27.

Blackstone wasn’t able to adequately warm up and said she felt sluggish throughout the race en route to a 5:03.93, good for second.

“I was really, really upset about the mile,” Blackstone said. “I kind of went for a walk afterwards and I was just like ‘Well, you can’t let it bother you because you have the 800 still,’ so I just kind of got myself going mentally again.”

So much so that Blackstone fired off the starting line in the 800 a couple hours later, raced out to a commanding lead, and won comfortably with a state record 2:17.83 to break a 14-year-old record of 2:18.50. She was feeling no lasting effects from a bad foot blister suffered last week.

“My coach got me some second skin stuff and that stuff is a miracle worker. It’s like a gel pad kind of thing and you wear them on your feet,” she said.

Among other standouts, Winslow junior Katie Souviney had the best all-around day as she won three events: The 100 hurdles, 300 hurdles, and 200 dash. The javelin throw, an event in which she was top-seeded, didn’t go so well.

“I don’t know what happened. I don’t have any excuses because everybody’s competing in the same weather. I didn’t even make finals so I guess it was just a bad day,” she said. “I really wanted to win four events, but I guess now I have something to go for next year.”

Other notable performances for girls were had by Hampden’s Mackenzie Rawcliffe, who won the triple jump with a distance of 33 feet, 111/2 inches; Mount View of Thorndike’s Audra Caler, who won the 3,200 in 11:22.40; and Erskine Academy of South China’s Leslie Gosselin, who took the 100 dash in 13.21 seconds.

Old Town’s 1,600 relay team of Hannah Marquis, Kasey Spencer, Amanda Nadeau and Kathryn Laverdiere broke their own school record with a time of 4:16.44, thanks in large part to a gutsy anchor leg by Laverdiere, who was passed by Medomak Valley’s Valerie Shepard with 50 yards to go.

Laverdiere refused to fold and somehow found some unused energy, catching Shepard and then passing her in the last 10 yards.

“I probably got it from my anger in the 800. I didn’t do as well as I wanted there, so I decided to put it toward something positive and I put it into the relay,” she said. “I just knew I wanted to look back on this and have it in my head as a good memory for years to come.”

Local boys stars included Ellsworth’s Adam Macbeth, who shook off disappointing seconds in the 110 hurdles and long jump to win the 300 hurdles; Mount Desert Island’s Robin Fernald, who won the pole vault with a height of 12-6; Camden Hills’ Corey Leach, who took the long jump with a 21-71/4; Mount View’s Brien Flewelling, who won the high jump with a 6-7; and Caribou’s Jeff Alden, who finally knocked off rival Karl Moser of Hampden in the 3,200.

Moser, who had beaten Alden in the Penobscot Valley Conference and Eastern B regional meets, was sapped by strep throat, but Alden wasn’t in much better shape as he was battling bronchitis.

“Once I started to run, I just kind of ignored it and it seemed to go away,” Alden said. It loosened up a little in the humidity so it was easier to breathe.”

Alden still had to outduel someone for the win, but this time it was Gorham’s Michael Downing, who had beaten Alden in the 1,600 and 800 earlier. This time Moser would wind up sixth.

“As we went around the last lap, I saw Downing start to go and I knew I had to go also because he got away from me right at that same spot in the 1600,” Alden said. “Both of us are pretty good kickers, so it was just who could outkick who and I just gave it all I had.”

Alden won by two-hundredths of a second.