They practice on a dirt track, and on jumping pits with asphalt runways.

But members of the Greenville High track team are more than holding their own against the top Class C programs in the region.

The Lakers showed off their talent and depth at the recent Penobscot Valley Conference Small Schools Championships, with the girls team placing third among a 16-team field and the boys squad placing a respectable sixth among 13 teams.

What makes this even more impressive is that Greenville High has just 107 students in grades 9-12, and nearly a third – 16 girls and 12 boys – are participating in track and field this spring under girls coach Ron Pelletier and boys coach Steve Lizotte.

The girls team is led by sophomore Beth Bartley and freshman Hannah Breton, who swept the jumping events at the PVCs.

Bartley, who as a freshman won the Class C state championship in the high jump, won the PVC high jump with a best of 5 feet – just off her school record of 5-21/2 – and also won the triple jump at 30 feet, 7 inches.

Breton overcame a mishap in the 100 hurdles to win the long jump (15-41/4) while placing third in the 400 and fourth in the 100.

“They are a couple of very, very talented kids,” Pelletier said.

Other top finishers were senior Andrea Edmondson and sophomore Amelia Butman, who placed third and fifth in the 1,600 racewalk, respectively, and Rica Breton, who was fourth in the high jump.

In the boys meet, the Lakers came up big in the pole vault, with Jim McCarthy, Eric Douglass, Frank McCarthy and Jordan Belmont placing 2-3-4-5. Jordan Belmont and Kyle Belmont placed fourth and fifth in the 400, while Jonah Lizotte was fifth in the 100 and 200.

“We’ve never had track seen as a premier sport at Greenville,” said Pelletier, who has coached there since 1979. “But that’s beginning to change.”

Greenville will be competing in Saturday’s State Class C track meet at Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft. It will begin at 10 a.m.