Toledo Christian, Evergreen girls earn district track titles
5/25/2014FREMONT — Invitations addressed for Toledo Christian’s end of the season track and field banquet include the words “A spring tradition.”
It makes reference to the program’s ever growing supremacy in the Toledo Area Athletic Conference, with last week delivering the seventh straight girls title.
It would have been presumptuous to include district championships in the discussion, but maybe the Eagles should have. They claimed their fourth crown in a row on Saturday in one of two Division III district girls meets held at Fremont Ross.
TC picked up three individual titles, setting the stage for what should be a gripping regional this week when the Eagles head to Tiffin trying to take down favorite Tinora.
With senior hurdler Darian Westmeyer accounting for 38, TC accumulated 120 points and never felt threatened by Gibsonburg (104.50) or St. Mary Central Catholic (100.50).
No current TC girl has ever lost a league or district meet, as good a reason as any to throw a party.
“It’s been an awesome experience,” said Westmeyer, winner of both hurdles and the 400 relay. “The girls that have come before us and have carried on the tradition through the years, I don’t know if there’s many schools with that tradition.”
Evergreen, with eight of its 11 team members making the finals, won the other girls title, the school’s first since 1985. The Vikings scored 102.5 points, getting 38 from Carly Truckor, who won three events but not the 300 hurdles of which she owns a state title. Tiffin Calvert was next with 82.
Hopewell-Loudon prevailed in the boys meet, trumping Woodmore 101 to 98 in a strange conclusion. Due to a fallen hurdle disrupting a lane in the opening event, the 110-meter hurdles, the race was re-contested at the end. Hopewell-Loudon benefited, scoring an additional four points from the first try to win by three.
Woodmore senior Jordan Buck will make his first regional appearance after trimming six seconds from his previous best to win the 1600 in 4:37.63. Buck, who admits to having had a “horrible” junior season, attributes increased dedication to his strong late-career push.
“I wasn’t that great the past few years,” he said. “I really got serious about it.”
His teammates, Malachi Brown and Deric Anthony, took titles in the 400 and 800, respectively. Brown closed in 50.22, Anthony in 1:58.52.
Four meet records were established.
Woodmore’s 1600 relay of Joey Mctague, Anthony, Grant Weis, and Brown, beat a 15-year-old mark in 3:25.98, about six-tenths faster than Calvert did it in 1999.
Calvert’s boys 400 and 800 relays beat marks set two years earlier by the Senecas with some of the same team members. Toledo Christian’s Micah Johnston bested a 10-year-old time in the 300 hurdles, but so did Gibsonburg’s Colleen Reynolds, who edged the TC sophomore, 57.55 to 57.71. The old mark, of 57.93, belonged to New Riegel’s Jamie Depinet.
Johnston, who fell to Reynolds last week at the TAAC meet, will get two more cracks at the defending state champ.
"They’re gonna have a mini state championship all the way to it,“ TC coach Paul Barney said.
Reynolds finished second to her twin in two sprints. Kendall Reynolds inched her sister by two one-thousandths of a second in the 200 and also beat her in the 100.
“We had no idea who won,” Kendall said. “I think it was my lean that got her. It was close.”
The twins, along with Selena Alejandro and Isabel Del Toro, captured the 1600 relay in 4:14.86.
In the other district, Truckor took titles in the 100 (12.95) and 200 (26.47), and the 100 hurdles (16.13). She was second in the 300 hurdles, closing in 48.49 — well off her state champion pace of 44.12 from a year ago.
Truckor going head-to-head with the Reynoldses this week for the first time since their freshman years will be worth the price of admission.
"They both have a lot to put out there,” Truckor said. ”They’re fast, they’re gonna give me a race, that’s for sure.“
Truckor’s less-heralded sidekicks made Evergreen’s team championship possible, such as runner-ups Shawna Siefker (long jump) and Alyssa Noe (200, 400), and the 800 relay, which took third.
“It’s definitely an effort from everyone,” she said. “Everyone’s out there running their best, giving their all. ... We have a small school. Not that many kids want to get out there and work hard. But the few that do, it’s worth it in the end.”
Toledo Christian used a practical formula, scoring big with Westmeyer and with others like Bebe Adebiyi, Brianna Stewart, and Johnston, who joined Westmeyer on the winning 400 relay.
The Eagles scored big in relays, taking second in the 800 and the 3200, and third in the 1600.
“We’re pleased with just about everything we did here,” Barney said. “We advanced in all of the events we thought we were gonna advance in.”
Other winners were Toledo Christian’s Mike Norman (300 hurdles), St. Wendelin’s Sophia Volpe (1600), St. Joseph Central Catholic’s Chloe Liebold (800), Woodmore’s Jordan Gregorczyk (pole vault), and Lakota’s Kevin Crowe (shot put).
Winners on Wednesday were Stritch’s Jennifer Trumbell (discus), Woodmore’s Dan Sprinski (long jump), and St. Joe’s Tricia Reinhart (shot put).
Contact Ryan Autullo at: rautullo@theblade.com, 419-724-6160 or on Twitter @AutulloBlade.