CAMDEN – Whether the margins were large or more modest, the only thing that mattered was that both of Westhill’s track and field teams were Section III Class B champions.
During Thursday’s sectional meet at Camden, Westhill’s boys earned 102 points to finish ahead of the host Blue Devils (88 points), while the girls’ total of 204 points more than doubled the 101 from runner-up Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
Keying Westhill’s boys effort was the points it gained in distance races such as the 3,000-meter steeplechase, where Drew O’Reilly won in 10 minutes, 47.15 seconds and Edward Popp was second in 11:04.79, with Bohdan Centore (11:15.40) fourth.
Popp, O’Reilly, Bryce Burdick and Julian Curtis were second in the 4×800 relay in 8:55.41, O’Reilly adding a third in the 1,600-meter run in 4:40.40 as Centore (4:44.04) was fifth. Popp was second (10:37.71) and Centore third (10:38.32) in the 3,200-meter run as Curtis took fifth in the 800-meter run in 2:13.26.
Westhill also won the 4×100 relay as Anthony Osorio, Ayden Williams, Ladaryle Watkins and Owen Mulholland went 46.06 seconds to edge Camden’s 46.23, Osorio later adding a fifth-place triple jump of 40 feet.
Mulholland, in 59.77 seconds, and Carter Buckman, in 59.94, went 1-2 in the 400 hurdles, the only two to break the one-minute mark, as in the 200-meter dash Mulholland got third place in 23.80 and Buckman’s pole vault of 10’6″ was runner-up to the 10’10” from South Jefferson’s Richard Grabski.
Nazaire Williams earned 1,971 points in the pentathlon for fifth place, with Lamar McIntyre sixth in the 100-meter dash in 12.14 seconds. Ayden Williams finished seventh in the high jump, clearing 5’4″.
Meanwhile, the Westhill girls pulled far away from its challengers, led by Ashley Bolesh, who won three different events, including the long jump, where at 16’2″ she edged the 16′ 1/4″ from Camden’s Jacey Hinds.
In distance races, Bolesh won at 1,500 meters in 4:56.39, the only time in the field under five minutes, and then beat the field in the 800 in 2:25.18 to go with a third in the 2,000 steeplechase in 8:07.46, ahead of Eileen Mullen in fourth and Jules Bleskoski in fifth.
Kate Bendall, in 16.40 seconds, beat out Ava Baty (16.49) in the 100 hurdles, with Emma Murphy fourth in 17.32, while Isabel Young took the 400 hurdles in 1:09.78 over the 1:10.73 from South Jefferson’s Chloe Abbott.
Bendall added a second in the triple jump, going 33’8 1/4″ as Baty was third (33’7″), Isabel Leonardo fourth (33’3 1/2″) and Young fifth (33’2″).
Mallie Alt won the pole vault, clearing 8 feet as Baty and Mary Kate Rewakowski both topped 7’6″ for fourth and fifth place, respectively. Jael Hill added a victory in the shot put with a toss of 31’2 1/2″ as no one else broke the 30-foot mark.
Allison Langham was second in the 100 sprint in 13.45, second in the 200 in 27.07 and helped Bendall, Murphy and Derricka Trotman get second (52.43) to VVS (52.09) in the 4×100.
Leonardo, in 1:00.58, was one-hundredth of a second behind CBA’s Grace Fletcher (1:00.57) in the 400-meter dash, with Kennedy Rose third in 1:04.29. Rose, Leonardo, Young and Molly Thompson were second in the 4×400 relay in 4:19.16.
Blesksoski went 11:31.88 at 3,000 meters for second place, while Mullen (11:38.99) was third. Ileanna Hopkins cleared 4’8″ for second place in the high jump.
Emma Marshall threw the discus 85’5″ for third place, with Morgan Heise sixth (77’3″) and Hill seventh. Westhill got third in the 4×800 in 10:5148 as Lizzie Horner was fifth in the pentathlon with 1,562 points.
