Small squads battle at big meets

"Pared down South Whidbey boys and girls track teams continued to improve their season marks against the second strongest field of teams at two invitationals Saturday.At the boys-only Shoreline Invitational, the 4x400 relay team of Andy Wills, Joe Candelario, Braden Giswold and Brett Perkins ran on pure jet fuel to lower its own school record. The team's third-place time of 3:25.48 was almost a second-and-a-half faster than the previous record of 3:26.9.Perkins, Giswold and Candelario also found success in individual events. Perkins ran one of his fastest times of the season in the 800-meter, placing fifth in 1:58.8. In the 1,600, Giswold found himself playing catch-up after getting boxed in the early going, but still ran a season best 4:22.31 for third place. Candelario's success spilled into the open 400 dash, which he scorched for one of his best times of the year.In the field, freshman Nick Plastino carried the South Whidbey flag as he took eighth in the high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 8 inches.Girls relay wellA few miles drive south and east at the Lake Washington Invitational, the South Whidbey girls also had a good day in the relay department. In the 4x100, Dail Bates, Melissa Poolman, Lindsey Binford, and Andrea McGillen ran to a season best time, took sixth place overall, and closed within .2 of a second of the school record.A few events later in the 4x200, Bates, Binford, Poolman, and Claudia Gil-Osorio placed fifth on 1:49.54 performance. Also placing as a team were Callie Supsinskas, Karen Schwager, Lena Ishii, and Malena Hymas in the distance medley. They were seventh in the event.Individually, Andrea McGillen had the most success, placing second in the triple jump and third in the pole vault. McGillen's freshman sister, Katy, earned her own placing in the high jump, taking second behind Ferndale's Stacy Cowan.Next up for the Falcons is a league meet in Blaine Thursday. That meet starts at 4 p.m. "

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