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MENTONE - Track meets don't go as close to form as the Three Rivers Conference Championships did Friday night. On the boys side, Whitko and Manchester were expected to battle nose-to-nose for the championship. Sure enough, the Wildcats, who went undefeated in the TRC during the year, edged the Squires 116-109.5. On the girls side, Southwood was the team to beat and only Whitko had a strong chance to beat the Knights. As was expected, Southwood scored 128 points to Whitko's 108.75 for the title.
Want more? Of the 31 events in boys and girls action, 25 of the No. 1 seeds won events. In five of the six that the No. 1 seed didn't win, they finished second. In only three events did someone seeded lower than second win and one of those was a No. 3 seed.
All of that played right into the hands of the six favorites to win multiple events. Whitko's Tim Mason, Manchester's Nick Iden and Northfield's Chad Andrews all won the events they were favored to. Southwood's Angie Corcoran, Rochester's Jayme Hartzler and Whitko's Heidi Hull did the same on the girls side.
Of those six, Mason opened the most eyes among the boys and Hartzler did the same among the girls.
Mason shattered the meet record in the 200 with a time of :22.4. The old record of :22.8 had stood since 1983. He also won the 100 and the long jump.
Hartzler set a meet record in the 800 and the 1600, running away from the field from the opening gun.
Iden, as expected, won both hurdles events and Andrews was the distance king with victories in the 1600 and 3200.
Corcoran won the sprint events on the girls side with victories in the 100, 200 and 400. Hull won the 300 hurdles and the shot put with a personal best four feet better than her old best. However, she finished second in the 100 hurdles to teammate Loranna Sparks, who came in seeded seventh.
In boys action, Whitko led most of the night but the Squires made a late push to get to within 7.5 points of the Wildcats. Twice Whitko ended first and Manchester second and twice Manchester ended first and Whitko second.
The difference came in the field events where Whitko's Bo Mullins won the discus and finished third in the shot put while Mason leaped 21-8.5 for the long jump championship. Manchester, on the other hand, didn't place higher than third in any of the five field events.
Twice the Squire relay teams came in seeded second and edged the No. 1 seeded Wildcats, in the 400 and 1600 relay, but it wasn't enough to make up the gap in the field.
"We performed real well," Whitko boys coach Ron Cherry said. "We were focused on beating Manchester. This is the best team effort we've had in years as far as scoring everywhere. (Being the favorite) is not a position we've been in before and we were pretty nervous this week."
Although Valley ended sixth, the Vikings had two surprises. Eric Prater, seeded third, won the 400 and Kevin Hileman, seeded seventh, won the 800.
In girls action, Whitko got three wins, two from Hull and one from Sparks. The Wildcats stayed close to Southwood by placing second in five more events.
"We did well, but Southwood is very good," Whitko girls coach Brian Balsmeyer said. "We had some girls that really stepped it up. Overall, we've got to be pleased."
Valley got just one first place and Manchester did not get any. Jenny Day won the 3200 for the Vikings' only victory.
Manchester, Whitko and Valley will compete in the girls sectionals Tuesday at Valley while the boys will gear up for the sectionals on Thursday at Plymouth.
