CB WEST TRACK & FIELD INVITATIONAL

Monday, April 23 2012

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Newsteam ybSportsonline,

CB WEST TRACK & FIELD INVITATIONAL

The talk around town has been mostly about the upcoming Penn Relay Carnival in Philadelphia this week at Penn University’s Franklin Field, but most of the Suburban One high school teams did most of their prep work on Saturday at War Memorial Stadium at the site of CB West’s annual carnival relays in Doylestown, Pa. The West Relays have produced some of the most exciting competition the state has to offer while providing many of the areas local athletes with a measuring stick to compare to when getting ready for the world famous Penn relays in sunny Philadelphia. The Suburban One Conference generally sends a wealth of talent to the Penn Relays each April and this year’s West relays numbers will confidently reflect that. An event that has spanned more than twenty years seems to just get better with age and much of the credit has to go to Greg Wetzel, the current Central Bucks West boys head track coach and his staff. Wetzel also busies himself during the relays in Doylestown as he also doubles as the meet’s Director.

This year’s field was loaded with talent and judging from the number of records that went by the wayside Saturday in Doylestown, you could say that most of the quartets that competed have pretty much fine tuned their strides to perfection and are ready to take the big stage at Penn University. Besides running for the relays, many of the contestants were also in the hunt, or pursuit of improving on past relay times so that the criteria for earning an invite to the districts and state championships were met first. Conditions were perfect for running on Saturday as CB East’s 4 x 100 meter girls relay team of Miranda Meehan, Dara Lindsay, Kelly Knauer and Melanie Caine showed why when their time qualified them for a district start.

The Central Bucks boys distance medley relay team comprised of Eric Zolesky, Nico Metzler, Ben Smith and Austin Kline took top honors in that race and will use the same formula when they compete at the Penn Relays next Saturday afternoon. One of the day’s most exciting events showcased the Pennridge girls 4 x 100 meter relay team which included Ariana Przybylowski, Taylor Chapman, Natalia Pinkney and Casey O’Brien against the Central Bucks West girls squad which was out kicked by the Ladies out of Pennridge High coming down the home stretch. To add more drama to their case the schedule later pitted the very talented speed merchants from Pennsbury’s 4 x 400 meter girls relay team against the same foursome of Kelsey Horst, Courtney Taylor, Jamila Branch and Lizanne Furst from C B West that had traded spike marks with the Pennridge quartet earlier. The quartet from West also lost that race against a very determined Falcon group, but judging from the way they performed, they’re ready for the spotlight to shine on them next week and at the state championships. However, the Central Bucks West girls team will have to do some strategizing though if they are thinking about running down the wind tunnel at Franklin Field and walking away with any hardware because the competition won’t be getting any easier for them once they tack on their Penn relay numbers to their jerseys. From that moment on, it’s game on!

Photography; Russ Harris ybSportsonline

The packs head for turn one during the 4 x 400 meter relays Saturday at C B West High School.

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Suburban One star Tori Gerlach received an invite to compete at the Penn Relays this year.

Gerlach, a distance runner will be on the track at franklin Field at 7:00pm on Thursday evening.

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CB WEST TRACK & FIELD INVITATIONAL

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