ORONO – Three years ago, Tony Schwarze was one of seven freshmen on Brewer High School’s track and field team. It was the last Brewer boys team to win a regional indoor track title.

Monday night, Schwarze was one of the key players for the Witches as he helped lead them to the PVC-Eastern Maine Indoor Track League championship. It was much sweeter the second time around.

“Oh yeah, because I actually had a part in this one, you know?” Schwarze said. “It just feels good to know I scored points for this. I’ve worked hard for four years for this and … it feels good.”

The Witches won in impressive fashion as they more than absorbed the loss of a top sprinter (ineligibility) and filled the gap early on with points they weren’t seeded to win.

Brewer finished with 136 points to finish comfortably ahead of runner-up Old Town (69). Hampden Academy was third with 65.

“When guys don’t do well early on, it puts more pressure on the guys who have to follow them,” said first-year Brewer indoor coach Matt Collins. “Luckily, we did better than expected in three of our first events and that brought a sense of relief. Everyone’s more relaxed and I think that’s why we’re seeing so many good performances.

“It’s contagious. We have guys PR-ing all over the place.”

Guys like Schwarze, an eighth seed in long jump who finished third, a seventh seed in triple jump who finished fourth, and a sixth seed in the 60-yard hurdles who was fifth.

Guys like fellow senior Dan Peterson, who won the 60 hurdles and led a trio of Brewer hurdlers seeded to finish second, third and sixth to a 1-2-5 finish.

That was just the beginning. In the long jump, the Witches scored 10 points when they were seeded for three. In the 400 meters, they grabbed 12 instead of the eight projected.

“This does so much for the team. It lifts our spirits up,” said Josh Hawkes, who was second in the hurdles and third in the 200 before running the anchor leg of Brewer’s winning 4×220 relay team which also included Peterson, Chris Fox, and Dan Fox.

Brewer also won the 4×880 relay with a team of Nathan Haluska, David Haluska, Brendan Carr and Peter McGuire.

Individually for Brewer, Mike Ford finished first in the 400 and David Haluska won the two-mile.

Old Town senior John Garrity was named the boys top performer after scoring 24 points with a first-place finish in the 60-yard dash and 200 meters. He ran the anchor leg of Old Town’s second-place 4×220 relay team. Garrity said a strong start with a win in the 60 was the key.

“It was very important. I struggled last year and tapered off in the season, so I didn’t want that to happen again,” Garrity said.

The Indians were short-handed as they were missing Andrew Reinzo, the top seed in the 400 and an athlete who head coach Rod White said could have scored 24 points for the Indians. Reinzo missed the meet due to a back injury he suffered while sledding Sunday.

Another jolt to Old Town came when Camden Gould scratched himself from the two-mile after finishing second in the mile due to injury.

Old Town’s Tim Niles won both the long jump and triple jump.

Another injury scratch was Sumner of East Sullivan standout Ryan O’Keefe, the top seed in the two-mile and a top contender in the mile. O’Keefe suffered a stress fracture while running last week after using a new pair of shoes.

“He has a sharp pain on the top of his foot and we decided to sacrifice one week for the states and the spring season,” said mother and coach Becky O’Keefe. “It was really hard to watch the mile and two-mile tonight, though.”

The other individual winners were Ellsworth’s Kris Tracy in the mile, George Stevens Academy’s Travis Rieley in the 800, Hampden Academy’s Ramsey Lafayette in the shot put, Bangor’s Nick Buchanan in the high jump, and Hermon’s Adam Haggerty in the pole vault.