This past weekend, the Blue Devils won their fourth consecutive North 2, Group 4 sectional championship, giving head coach Chris Tafelski his third this academic year.
This meet came down to the wire between Ridge and Westfield, but in the end the Blue Devils were able to pull away with 99.5 points to Ridge’s 88.
Starting off the point scoring for the Blue Devils would come in the 800 meters where senior Ryan Daly became the first Blue Devils sectional champion of the event with a time of 1 minute and 53 seconds. Following closely behind Daly was senior Kaleb Stoeckmann in fourth place with a huge personal best of 1:56. This earned the Blue Devils 14 points and was a great start.
Next on the track was the 400 hurdles, where senior Tyler Pietrewicz was able to get third with a time of 55.39, picking up another huge six points for the Blue Devils.
After that came the 3200 where senior Cole Varner was able to match his personal record of 9:35 to get fifth place picking up two crucial points for Westfield in this tight meet. Varner credits his success to the coaches keeping him calm throughout the race. He found himself in a tough spot with about 2 laps to go. However he said that “coach Kyle was standing at the 150 mark which really motivated me in the tougher stages of the race to get my wheels turning.”
Wrapping up day one of the meet would be the field events where Niko Lukas and Noah Rubenstein placed third in the high jump and shot put, respectively.
Leading off day two for the Blue Devils would be the 4×800 relay where Varner once again came in clutch having a monster first leg of 1:59 to put the boys in a terrific spot for the rest of the relay. In the end, they finished second, picking up eight points.
Tafelski was ecstatic that Varner was able to have such a good race, he said, “Cole breaking two [seconds] is huge for this relay going into the group meet and I believe that he might be the key to a state championship winning relay.”
Right before the 1600, the results for the triple jump, discus and pole vault came in. Charlie Vanecek and Sam Braun both got fifth in their respective events. However, Rubenstein and senior Andrew Geocos delivered when the team needed at the most and won their events, combining for a massive 20 points for the Blue Devils
When the 1600 arrived, the Blue Devils were down two points to Ridge. Daly and Stoeckmann knew this and delivered. Daly was able to win the race with Stoeckmann coming in third. Daly, “knew the meet was going to come down to the 1600, so [he] just made sure to fight for every spot I could to help the team score.” This was a 12 point swing for the Blue Devils, putting them ahead by eight points going into the last event, the 4×400 relay.
Ridge needed a miracle to catch up, and luckily for Westfield, their wish wasn’t granted. The 4×400 team dropped the eighth fastest time in WHS history to claim second place in the race, securing the sectional title for the Blue Devils.
Westfield will continue in the state tournament with the Group 4 championship on May 30 and 31.
