Sports

State Champs (x 2)!!

• The Westwood School Wildcats and Lady Wildcats track & field teams defended their state championships Saturday afternoon, marking the first time since 1983 that a Class A squad has repeated as back-to-back champs.

Derek Barichello

Three cheers for Westwood.

On the final day of the GISA State Track & Field meet in Albany, the Wildcats and Lady Wildcats became the first GISA Class A school to win both the girls and boys state titles in back-to-back seasons in 25 years — leaving a smile lit up on the face of coach Earl Ford under the shadow of his straw hat.

While Saturday’s title marked a fitting finish to a season of hard work that came to fruition in three days at Hugh Mills Stadium, it also provided promising glimpses into the future of his blossoming program.

“We have something special going on here,” Ford said proudly. “This is a very special moment for our program.”

Now with five state titles and three runner-up finishes since 2005, Westwood put its name alongside the track dynasties on display Saturday.

Keeping the status quo of consecutive championships with Westwood was Trinity Christian girls, which won its fourthClass AA title in a row with First Presbyterian Day girls also grabbing its fourth in a row in AAA.

Deerfield-Windsor’s girls finished third in AAA.

“We lived up to the hype,” FPD coach Chris Wilson said.

Breaking the monotony, Bulloch Academy’s boys ended a streak of three straight Trinity titles with their own AA crown and Riverside Military Academy took the AAA championship in what turned out to be a three-way race between second-place FPD — which won two of the last three years — and third-place Deerfield-Windsor.

“Trinity broke our streak five years ago,” Bulloch boys coach Clint Morgan said. “It’s just a little pay back.”

But for Westwood, there was nothing that could spoil its party Saturday.

Westwood’s girls finished with 136 points to win the meet decisively over Robert Toombs by 32 points, but the boys needed the last event to secure their title.

Going into the 4x400-meter relay needing seventh place or better, the Wildcats’ relay team answered with a second-place finish, clinching the crown by seven points over Covenant.

Depth was a key in both victories.

Of the eight events held on Saturday, the Westwood girls had two top eight finishers in four of them, while the Westwood boys had five events with two top-eight finishers.

And it’s that depth that had Ford thinking about a three-peat and a future as bright as his team’s orange uniforms.

“I’m so excited because this was a team effort,” Ford said. “We had several younger kids that ran and contributed. We had standout individuals but for every upperclassmen finishing at the top of the field we(even) had our eighth graders, freshmen or sophomores right behind them.”

Illustrating Ford’s point was senior Brett Shiver, who posted a Class A-best 33 points and won state titles in both the 110 and 300 hurdles, along with freshman Jake Edore finishing fourth in the 110 hurdles and fifth in the 300 hurdles.

“I told Jake, ‘Now that I’m done, it’s your turn,’ ” Shiver said. “I had a tradition to keep alive today. Jamey Shirah won the hurdles before me and Jake is going to win them after me.”

It went down the same way for the Lady Wildcats’ Lindsey Curles and Virginia Vereen in the 110 hurdles, with the senior Curles finishing fourth — despite a sprained ankle — and the eighth grader Vereen sixth. Jenna Willingham and Coley Westbrook, meanwhile, ran side-by-side in the 3,200, finishing third and fourth.

Of course, the Lady Wildcats couldn’t have achieved the goal without a whopping 24 points from Madison Lamar, just ahead of Willingham’s second team-best of 23.

“This is crazy-amazing,” said Willingham after the victory.

Ford would agree, adding he hopes 2007 and 2008’s success will fuel more titles down the road.

“It is my hope that the younger kids will see the opportunity that is out there for them,” Ford began, “and (come) be a part of something special.”

While Westwood’s boys depended on the 4x400 relay to win the meet, both Deerfield-Windsor’s girls and boys were hurt by costly disqualifications in the same race in their class.

The DWS boys were looking to extend a nine-point, first-place lead heading into the 4x100 — an event they were seeded No. 1 after setting the school record in Thursday’s qualifying round.

But that’s when disaster struck.

On the first hand-off of the relay, and after gaining a substantial early lead, senior star athlete Andre Young passed it off to fellow standoutJohn Smith.

The only problem?

Smith was ruled outside of the legal area to take a hand-off.

The result was a disqualification, likely costing the Knights a crucial 10 first-place points.

Consequently, Riverside Military finished first and seventh to take 12 points from the relay and a lead it would not relinquish the rest of the afternoon on their way to a 23-point victory.

“I don’t know what happened,” Smith said. “We had it off the block, too.

That’s the first time that’s happened to us. Our hand-offs just got messed up.”

DWS boys coach Craig Rhodes couldn’t have been thrilled seeing a possible state title slip away because of a simple error, but he didn’t show it.

“I still feel like we left a great effort on the track (Saturday),” Rhodes said. “I don’t blame any one event. I’ve seen stuff like that a number of times in my 25 years. We had 16 other events and other areas we missed out on an opportunity to get points.”

The Lady Knights, meanwhile, also were disqualified for an illegal hand-off outside of the legal area in the 4x100 back on Day 1 Thursday, which could’ve meant 10 points had they won. In the end, DWS was 13 points behind second-place finisher Robert Toombs.

“I thought we responded well and kept at it,” DWS coach Charlie Greene said. “But it really hurt us in our push for second place.”

Westwood, however, doesn’t even know what second place is anymore these days.

“Everybody worked so hard,” Ford said. “There wasn’t one person we could have done this without.”

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