Regardless of the opposition, the Westhill track and field teams were determined to go right to the front of the heated OHSL Liberty division races.
And that’s exactly what the Warriors pulled off last Wednesday afternoon, turning aside both Marcellus and Hannibal in the league-opening three-way meet.
On the girls side, Westhill fought hard to beat Marcellus 75-62, but had a little more room in getting past Hannibal 86.5-50.5.
Abby Lee served as a prime force for her side, taking the 100-meter high hurdles in 17.2 seconds and the 400 hurdles in 1:13.1. She also teamed with Katie Powers, Katie Lenkiewicz and Claire Wickersham to win the 4×400 relay in 4:33.6.
Lenkiewicz also helped Crystal Whiteside, Lissa DiPaola and Catherine Coon prevail in the 4×800 relay (10:38.4), as Powers took the 800-meter run in 2:36.1. In field events, Kathryn Christensen cleared 4 feet 4 inches to win the high jump, as Paula Sanz topped 6 feet 6 inches and took first place in the pole vault.
The boys meet saw Westhill have the same kind of battle with Marcellus and win by a nearly identical margin, 77-64, as it was also routing Hannibal 114-24.
With the Mustangs winning most individual events on the oval, Westhill turned to relay events. Chris Moore, Anthony Legnetto, Andrew Corcoran and Eric Moore teamed to take the 4×800 relay in 8:33.7, with Legnetto and Moore returning later to help Pavle Bujanovic and Jesse Krell win the 4×400 relay in 3:42.3.
Corcoran could not catch Marcellus star Chris Stogsdill in the mile (4:37.7, to Stogsdill’s 4:31.6), but Bujanovic did win the 400-meter dash in 54.5 seconds.
Tom Trendowski twice prevailed in field events, throwing the shot put 43 feet 6 3/4 inches and also taking the triple jump with 36 feet 9 3/4 inches. Tom Welch cleared 10 feet in the pole vault, as Tom Fisher threw the discus 120 feet 9 inches for another Warrior victory.
In defeat, Marcellus had Stogsdill win all three distance races — the 800, mile and 3,200 — as Matt Weeks swept through the 110 high hurdles, 400 hurdles, long jump and high jump.
