North girls win WNY Relays
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Sarah Mikulski, pictured first row, far left, Meredith Kirby, Michele Bauman, and Lauren Triantafillou captain the Williamsville North girls indoor track team. The Lady Spartans won the Western New Relays last Saturday at Fredonia State College for the first time in school history. Combined with the boys team, North finished second. Pictured in the second row are coaches Julian Blake, left, and Greg Stang.

Williamsville North girls indoor track coach Julian Blake was confident his team could win last Saturday's Western New York Relays at Fredonia State College and they delivered.

The Lady Spartans won the girls portion of the meet for the first time in school history with 69 points.

The North boys tied for fourth with Sweet Home with 28 points to give both teams a combined score of 97, good enough for second overall. Lancaster won overall with 119 points.

"I thought the girls were capable of taking first but I didn't think we would score as well as we did," said Blake. "We were 20 points ahead of the next closest school. The girls really performed well."

The North girls took third last year.

Blake said his team was able to perform well because of its depth.

"We saved girls for certain races which made us fresher than other teams," said Blake.

North won four events. Emily Curry (31-8.25) and Meredith Kirby (32-11.25) combined for a first place leap of 46-7.5 in the triple jump.

The 4x200 relay of Sarah Mikulski, Jessica Little, Shelbey Gray and Amy Loud won in an FAT time of 1:53.72. Mikulski (8.96) and Loud (personal best 9.2) joined forces to win the 55 hurdle relay in 18.08. Little, Raven Baxter, Loud and Kirby won the double 4x160 relay in 3:05.

The 4x800 relay of Kim Schueler, Rachel Dorogi, Caitlin Triantafillou, and Kim Berus took second in 10:28.1.

The North 4x400 relay and high jump each took home third place. Kirby, Michele Bauman, Berus and Schueler ran the 4x400 relay in 4:19.4. Curry and Gray combined for a 9-0, including a Section VI Championship jump of 4-10 by Curry.

Dorogi (1200 meters), Whitney Barrett (400), Schueler (800) and Berus (1600) ran the distance medley relay in 13:46.4 to take third.

The sprint medley relay of Bauman (400), Little (200), Baxter (200) and Caitlin Curry (800) ran a 4:47.3 to take fourth.

Sarah (7-6) and Sana Khan (6-6) took fifth in the pole vault in 14-0.

Alyssa Fabrizi and Gray went 10:26.4 and 10:04.1, respectively, for 20:30.5 in the racewalk to take sixth.

The North boys were led by Sean Felton and Collin Preston, who triple jumped 81-1.75 for a first place finish. Felton jumped a personal best 42-4.5 as did Preston in 38-9.25. Preston's mark also qualified him for sectionals.

The double 4x160 relay of Preston, Steve Oehler, Evan Hughes and Sinclair Johnson took second in 2:46.2.

The same four came in third in the 4x200 with an FAT and personal best time of 1:41.06.

Felton (18-9.25) and Hughes (16-11.25) went 35-8.5 in the long jump to take fifth. Tom Calandra (10-6) and Jacob Strom (9-0) went 19-6 inthe pole vault to place fifth.

The North boys and girls will compete at the Team Championships at 9 a.m. on Saturday at Fredonia State College.