Track & Field: Harvard-Westlake wins 4x800 relay

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Even with two ‘new’ runners, the Studio City Harvard-Westlake girls 4x800 relay team sought to break its own Invitational record at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut. The Wolverines had set the meet record of nine minutes, 3.77 seconds last spring.

Harvard-Westlake won easily this time, but fell short of the record, finishing in 9:08.69, still the second fastest time in the nation this year. The Wolverines were fifth at the halfway point, but Cami Chapus needed but half a lap to put her team in front. She gradually increased the lead with a 2:09.8 third leg before handing off the baton to fellow Stanford-bound senior Amy Weissenbach for the anchor.

Weissenbach covered the final two laps in 2:08 as Harvard-Westlake was nearly 21 full seconds ahead of second-place Long Beach Poly. Torrey Pines was third in 9:31.70.

‘I wasn’t looking at the clock, but when I heard that I needed 61 or 62 for the last lap I knew it would be very tough,’ said Weissenbach, the Gatorade National Track & Field Athlete of the Year for 2010-11. ‘It was the first time running this race for Rebecca [Armstrong] and Elle [Wilson] and they did great. We didn’t have any specific time goal, we just wanted to win.’

Mariel Mendoza of Riverside North won the Invitational girls 1600 in 4:51.98 while Bernie Montoya from Cibola (AZ) won the boys race in 4:07.72.

-- Steve Galluzzo