East Lyme — The person trumpeting Fitch's 20-meet winning streak headed into Wednesday's matchup against East Lyme, wasn't Fitch coach Rich Kosta. It was, in fact, East Lyme coach Steve Hargis, firing up his guys.

"Our older guys knew what that team is like," Hargis said of Fitch, the three-time defending Eastern Connecticut Large Division champion. "I thought going into last year's meet against them we had a chance and it didn't take long to find out we really did not. I put all the right kids in all the right places and everything."

The East Lyme High School boys' track and field team did beat Fitch on Wednesday 80-70, derailing the Falcons' longstanding winning streak and claiming first place in the ECC Large.

Greg Atkinson won the 110-meter high hurdles (15.3 seconds), 300 hurdles (43.6), 100 (11.5) and ran a leg on the winning 4x400 relay team for the Vikings (6-0, 2-0). East Lyme swept the relays, which turned out to be a crucial point, as one Fitch relay win — worth five points — would have accounted for a 10-point swing.

East Lyme was the ECC Large champion during indoor track season. Then the Vikings scored an impressive 85-65 victory over Norwich Free Academy on April 28 in their first Large Division dual meet of the spring.

"I knew that indoors," Fitch's Kosta said of East Lyme's strength. "I confirmed it when they beat NFA. They have a lot of guys that work very hard."

Hargis said the meet at NFA worried him ahead of time, partially because of the atmosphere there and in part because of the Wildcats' star power this season. In the 100 meters, for instance, NFA has the defending State Open champion in Andris Vital and another sprinter in football quarterback Jawaun Johnson who has beaten Vital.

"It's very intimidating," Hargis said. "When we walked in there, I didn't know how my kids would handle it. Vann (Moffett, a junior) is really a youngster, (pole vaulter) Josh Leffingwell is a youngster. They're intimidating because everyone's talking about it.

"Today, I was more excited for them. Everyone's just excited. These guys are a lot of fun."

East Lyme won the first eight events on the track and 11 of 12.

Jarett Mirecki, Colvert Moore, Moffett and Brandon Dinsmore won the 4x800 for the Vikings in 8 minutes, 24.5 seconds and the 4x100 team of Tim LaDuca, Evan Tryon, Jared Ayers and Declan Constable took the 4x100 in 44.8, giving the Vikings a 10-0 lead.

Atkinson then won the 110 hurdles and the 100 in back-to-back events, with Hargis talking with Atkinson earlier to make sure he was up for the tough double.

Moffett took the 1,600 (4:48.2) and 3,200 (10:20.7). Tryon (400) and Dinsmore (800) added individual wins on the track and Leffingwell (13 feet), Andrew Peitzsch and Ben Wojcik swept the pole vault. Josh Lopez, Atkinson, Elliot Allard and Dinsmore won the 4x400.

Eli Rosario Vega won the shot put (44-11) and discus (127-9) for Fitch (3-1, 1-1) and John Floyd the long jump (19-7) and triple jump (41-2).

"Our goal was to win," East Lyme's Atkinson said. "Not to (set a personal record). Just win your event. We're trying to go undefeated. ... I try not to go full speed (when running back-to-back events). In between I try to drink water and Gatorade."

"I told them," Hargis said, "if somebody runs 10:00, run 9:59. ... I think we have a good relationship. We do talk and they answer my questions honestly. I think I'm more these guys' cheerleader. They know what they need to get done."

Fitch edged Ledyard 76-74 in a dual meet last year to cap its third straight unbeaten season. The Falcons, with Gatorade Connecticut Track & Field Athlete of the Year Tyler Latham, then a senior, won the ECC championship meet with 114 points and went on to finish fourth as a team in the Class MM state championship.

"We ran well (against East Lyme). We had a lot of PRs," Kosta said. "We just don't have quite what they have. We have a younger team this year. We're not going anywhere. We still have those two guys (NFA and Ledyard) coming up. You know don't what's going to happen."

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday