ORONO – Two coaches synonymous with Eastern Maine track, Old Town’s Rod White and Maynard Walton of Bangor, felt that Saturday’s Eastern Maine Indoor Track League meet was a preview of the EM championship.

“If you look at the event standings, especially on the boys’ side, 90 percent of the top 6-7 kids are in this meet,” White said after his Indians fought off two tough teams in Bangor and Hampden Academy to win a closely contested boys meet, 100-91 over the second-place Broncos.

The Rams wound up third with 88, Ellsworth fourth with 69, Mount Desert Island fifth with 39, Brewer sixth with 34, and John Bapst of Bangor rounded out the scoring with seven.

In the girls meet, the John Bapst Crusaders fought a strong Bangor team throughout the meet, but the Rams had too much depth in the end, winning by a 125-89 score. Old Town (78), Hampden (65), MDI (27), Ellsworth (25), and Brewer (17) rounded out the team scoring.

In the boys meet, Hampden senior Trainor Kapler wound up with 28 points on the day, winning both the 60 (6.90 seconds) and 200 (23.83) and finishing second in the triple jump (39 feet, 21/2 inches). Teammate Ben Toothaker was first in 39-101/2.

Kapler made a clear statement that, come championship time, he’ll be the one to beat in the sprinting events.

“I broke my PR in the 200 by a couple of tenths of a second,” he said. “I feel like the 60 is more fun, though, because it’s more of a glory race.”

Kapler’s Broncos just didn’t have enough to overcome the talented Indians, however. Old Town got yet another victory by Tyler Eastman in the shot put with a heave of 54 feet, 31/4 inches. Matt Boobar, Jimmy Honnell and Corey Taylor backed up Eastman by placing third, fifth and sixth.

Old Town’s Tim Niles earned fourth in the high jump and won the long jump (20-3) and Sam Petrie notched second in the HJ.

“We were just trying different things,” said White. “You don’t want to overuse kids, so we spread things out a little bit.”

White’s top sprinter, Andrew Reinzo, did not compete in the meet due to soreness in his hamstrings, White said.

Old Town’s Mark Liimakka led a 1-3 charge in the pole vault, winning with an 11-foot vault. Teammate Sam Petrie finished third in 10-6. Petrie was also fifth in the hurdles. Andy Wood took fifth in the 200 and led off the 4×220 relay team that finished second. The 4×880 team was second as well.

Brewer junior Brendan Carr also made a strong championships statement by winning the 2-mile run in 10:09.57, bettering the best EM time this season by more than 30 seconds.

Another individual standout was John Bapst’s Evelyn Sharkey in the girls meet, who won the mile in 5:12 and the 800 in 2:24.24, a mere two seconds over Bangor star Jolene Belanger. In both races, Sharkey used the “sit-and-kick” method in which a runner remains patient throughout a race, then pushes all out the last 440 yards.

“I just try not to go out too fast so I don’t tire myself out at the end. I can have just a little bit of spring left,” Sharkey said.

Last week in the Black Bear Relays, Sharkey ran 5:11 in the open mile, and she’s looking to go under 5:10. The EMITL record is 5:04, and is possibly in striking distance.

“That’s one of my goals [to break 5:10], just keep improving my times over the season,” she said.

Bapst’s Elaine Colwell upset Bangor’s Kaitlin Dirrig in the 60, winning in 7.88 while Dirrig finished in 7.92. Two of the next three spots, however, belonged to Bangor athletes (Jennie Lucy third and Angela Reed fifth).

“We told the kids that in this meet with Hampden, Old Town, especially John Bapst, and Ellsworth, especially for the girls, that this is a preview for Easterns,” said coach Walton. “We got the improvements that we wanted and that was good. I’m satisfied.”

“John Bapst has six girls, and they can get 90 points easily,” Walton added. “We’ve got to work hard in those point areas to really do the job.”

Kelly Krapf, Lucy, and Dirrig went 2-4-6 in the 200 for Bangor while Erin MacDermott took the 400 in 1:06.83. Krapf was second in that race and Kelly Schenck finished fifth.

The Rams’ 4×880 team of Schenck, Lindsey Mercier, Deidre Wholly, and Jennie Foley took first while the 4×220 team was second in a close race with Old Town. In addition to her second in the 800, Belanger was third in the long jump and won the triple jump in 31-63/4.

Bapst’s Colwell also won the 60 hurdles while teammate Erica Dougherty edged Krapf in the 200 with a time of 28.72 seconds and took the LJ with a leap of 14-11.25.

Old Town distance star Cassie Hintz did not compete in the meet. According to White, the junior was still “under the weather a little bit” after returning from a 10-day Florida trip with her family.

“We’re just resting her up,” said White, who said she may run in some out-of-state invitationals over the next couple of weeks.

Hintz’s 2-mile time of 10:46.92 in the opening meet this season is ranked first in the DyeStat Elite National Rankings.