Western Albemarle’s boys and girls indoor track teams swept the Region 3C championships Wednesday leading a strong group of performances by local squads in the meet.
The Western girls stormed past second place Heritage-Lynchburg with 133 points to Heritage’s 90 with Charlottesville’s girls grabbing third and Fluvanna taking sixth.
The Western boys scored 94 points to outpace runner-up Heritage’s 86.5 points while Monticello took third, Charlottesville took fifth and Fluvanna grabbed sixth.
The top three finishers in each event qualified for the state tournament, and a pack of locals reached that standard.
Western’s Reese Mattern, second from left, and Charlottesville’s Maddie Packer battle it out in the 300 meters.
Western’s Jenna Stutzman won a pair of individual titles to set the pace for the Warriors, taking home the 1000 and 1600-meter championships. The Warriors also picked up titles in the 4×800 relay, from Kate Ratcliffe in the 3200 and from Reese Mattern in the 300 meters. Mattern, who’s 40.97 in the 300 set a new school record, also was the runner-up in the 55-meters to lead some impressive breakout performances by Western freshmen while Ratcliffe was the runner-up behind Stutzman in the 1600.
Western freshman Grace Cook was the runner-up in the 3200 and classmate Hailey Hodson was the runner-up in the 500. Maeci Frank was the runner-up in the 1000 and Jordan Stone took third in the 500. The Warriors also took second in the 4×400 and third in the 4×200 and rounded out the state qualifiers with Cierra Halloran taking second in the pole vault and Megan Futty snagging third in the pole vault.
The Charlottesville girls’ third place finish was powered by a win in the 4×400 and Maddie Packer’s all-around performance as she won the high jump, took second in both the 300 and long jump and grabbed third in the 55-meter race. Lucia Hoskins gave the Black Knights another win with a victory in the 500 while Elizabeth Burns took third in the triple jump to earn a spot in the state meet.
Fluvanna’s Shea Hart won the 55-meter hurdles and took third in the high jump while the Flucos’ 4×800 team took second place.
Western’s boys title run got a big boost from Joseph Taylor’s win in the 1600 and runner-up finish in the 1000 while Walter Moak took second in the 3200 and third in the 1600. Henry Sullivan won the region title in the 55-meter hurdles and Wade Donalson won the pole vault. The Warriors picked up a pair of runner-up finishes in the 4×400 and 4×800. Trevor Donalson and Luke Strobach took second and third in the pole vault respectively.
The Monticello boys took third place as a team and got a couple of strong outings from Will Trent and Malachi Fields to get that done. Trent won the 500 while Fields was second right behind Trent and then won the shotput and took third in the high jump. The Mustangs also took second in the 4×200 relay and got a victory from Esteban Vizcaino in the 3200. Hunter Ray took third in the 1000.
Charlottesville’s Miles Kershner led the Black Knights’ fifth-place finish with a region title in the 300 meters while Reece McKee took third in the 3200 and Elijah Tolton took third in the 55 hurdles.
Fluvanna’s boys squad won the 4×400 relay and Jaden Ferguson took third in both the long and triple jumps.
