BREWER – It was a meet that almost had to be finished by the light of handheld computer devices.

With the boys competition in the balance the whole way, Friday afternoon’s Penobscot Valley Conference track meet at Pendleton Street Field came down to the final three events.

With just the javelin and discus remaining, the Brewer boys led the Hampden Academy boys by 13 points. A 1-2-6 punch in the javelin from Andrew Parsons, Ben Toothaker, and Jonathan Lenz put the Broncos up by six with just the discus left.

In the end, the Witches’ Ryan Birkel and Adam Mullen went 2-3 in the discus to pull out the team win as darkness fell, 167-163 over the runners-up from Hampden Academy. Orono finished third with 113, Greenville fourth with 39, Calvary Chapel of Orrington fifth with 35, and Bangor Christian rounded out the six-team field with 14.

The girls meet was no contest as Hampden won over runner-up Orono 228-123, despite missing middle-distance runner Amanda Gervasi. Brewer wound up third with 106, followed by the Lakers (77), Patriots (24), and Sabers (1).

In the boys meet, junior distance runner Brendan Carr paced Brewer with wins in the 1600 meters (4 minutes, 48.22 seconds) and 3200 (10:25.09).

Carr, who has been bothered with shin splints in the past, has added a new phase to his training: yoga.

“I’ve changed my training. I did more base work just to build into the season,” he said. “I’ve also started doing some yoga, which has actually helped me a lot with my flexibility.”

The scrappy young Witches fought the Broncos tooth and nail throughout the meet, which really impressed the coaching staff.

“Hampden’s a quality team with a lot of great athletes,” said Brewer assistant/distance coach Glendon Rand. “We’ve got a team with a lot of new kids out. What’s nice is they have a lot of enthusiasm and they’re just learning what track’s all about.”

Besides Carr, only two Brewer athletes earned first-place finishes (Matt Stratton in the high jump, Starbird in the 400), but the hosts earned points in every event except the 1600 racewalk, triple jump, and javelin.

“We’ve got a very young inexperienced team,” said Carr, “and we’ve really come along and really shown that we’ve got what it takes to compete with Hampden.”

After Carr and teammate Nathan Haluska finished 1-3 in the 3200, the Broncos edged the Witches in a close 4×400-meter relay as HA anchor Zach Gamble outleaned Brewer’s Matt Starbird to win in 3:53.10. Brewer finished in 3:53.13.

“The boys 4×4 was a fantastic finish,” said Broncos coach Bill Meehan. “That’s what track is all about. To see that kind of finish makes it real exciting. That’s what everybody loves to see.”

The Broncos got most of their points in the sprints and jumps, with Trainor Kapler earning victories in the 100 and 200 dashes (11.73, 23.79) while Toothaker and Gamble went 1-2 in the triple jump with distances of 37-21/2 and 36-63/4.

“Trainor is doing fine, he’s coming along fine,” Meehan said. “If we can get some warmer weather and good training conditions, he’s going to do much better as the season progresses.”

Other individual winners were Orono’s Micah Mishio in the 800 (2:10.38), David Silk in the long jump (18-11), and Rob Chauvette in the shot put (47-51/2).

In the girls meet, Hampden made an early statement by scoring 28 points in the meet’s first two events (4×800 relay, 1600 racewalk) and never looked back from there.

“I think it was very good,” Meehan said of his team’s overall performance. “I think one thing that was good was the fact that even though we had a good meet, we didn’t really put everybody into every single event that we could get them into.”

Meehan said that Gervasi, a junior, is nursing knee tendinitis and is going through rehab.

“If everything goes right with rehab, we’ll get her back for the last regular-season meet,” the coach said. “It’s been building on her for about a year, and right at the end of indoor was when it hit her,” he said of the injury.

As they have in the past, the Broncos used their depth and ability to cover events well to dissect their way through the competition.

“It’ll be real interesting to see just what our maximum points will be in all events,” Meehan said.

On this day, HA’s strength was in the sprints. Emily Chambers took first in the 200 and second in the 100 while teammate Lauren Maltz was second in the 200 and third in the 100.

Kimble Rawcliffe, a sophomore, was third in the 100 hurdles and second in the 300 hurdles for HA while Molly Peverada took the 3200.

Orono standout Emily Artesani took both the 100 (13.46) and 400 (1:02.53) while Rachel Bergman took the 300 hurdles and pole vault for the Class C Red Riots.

Stephanie Dickey of Brewer won both the shot put and discus.