Carl Westling surveyed the hundreds of athletes from 14 area schools Saturday and saw that it was good.

A former South Whidbey High School science teacher, assistant principal and track guru, Westling never misses the match named for him, a 23-year tradition and counting.

“They think I died,” he joked before conferring with Falcon Coach Doug Fulton about that day’s events.

An open mile run for students, parents, onlookers and anyone who wanted to join kicked the day off promptly at 10:30 a.m.

The Westling Invite offered lots of stiff competition beside head winds. Runners, throwers and jumpers from schools large (Ballard, Kamiak, Mariner) and small (Coupeville, University Prep) spent a full day displaying the skills developed since the season began.

A race not run at normal meets was the distance medley relay: four girls trade off the baton after running varying distances — 1200, 400, 800 and 1600-meters. The hot Falcon quartet of Katie Gordon (1200-meters), Caroline Habel (1600-meters) and the Bosman twins — Cassie at 400-meters and Courtney at 800-meters — came in second in 13 minutes, 44.66 seconds.

Gordon noted the event doesn’t put a lot of stress on her — until the gun sounds.

“I don’t think anyone expected us to do that well, so second place is a pleasant surprise,” she said.

Freshman Courtney Bosman, who took the baton from her sister, uses track to get in shape for cross country.

“The race was hard but that’s good for me,” Bosman said.

“And it’s fun, short and fast compared to cross country,” sister Cassie added.

“I think we got points for the team, which is always a good thing,” Habel said. Indeed, the girls took first place over Ballard, 147 points to 120.5.

So much happens at once during a big meet like this. At the far corner of the field junior Katie Erickson wound up for the discus throw. She’s been discus hurling for five years, since middle school.

“There’s so much you can do to improve,” she said.

This is teammate Autumn Walker’s second year. “I switched from running because [assistant coach] Mr. Green said I’d be good at it,” she noted. “I threw over 72 feet, almost a personal best.”

Overall, the girls had a good day, none more so than sophomore Lauren Sandri who placed first in the 200-meter dash and second in the 100-meter. She was named female Track Athlete as well.

“There were a lot of fast girls today,” Sandri said. “Invites are great because the level of competition really pushes all of us to do our best. Being at home feels less intense than away until the race starts and you give it all you’ve got.”

The girls

Fulton was pleased with the day’s results.

“The girls showed a fine balance in scoring between sprints, distance, throws and jumps. The relay team posted a meet record and rank in the top 12 of schools in all classifications,” Fulton said.

He noted that Katherine East had a season-best in the 400 meters, while Erica Johnson held off Hillary Pritchett of Bainbridge to win the 800 meters.

Speaking of career bests, Ashley Stonebridge tied a career high for second in the pole vault.

The boys

“What we lack in numbers we certainly make up in heart,” Fulton said.

Junior Jason Fitz, district leader in the 110 and 300-meter hurdles, suffered a hamstring injury in March and competed for the first time again on Saturday.

“He should back in full form in time for the conference championships,” the coach said.

Senior JD Peters ranks among the top in the state in the 1600 meters — in a very close race Saturday he placed third but set a career best of 4:22.41 — the top three were separated by only 1.80 seconds.

Freshman Chandler Thompson had two sixth-place finishes in the 100 and 200 meters. Todd Berry had a solid day in the throws, placing third in the discus and fifth in the shot.

Nick Martin was eighth in the discus with a season best.

This Saturday, the Falcons head to the Marysville Pilchuck Invite.

Girls 100-Meter Dash

Tyson, Felicia (Ballard) 12.80

Sandri, Lauren (S. Whidbey) 13.17

Sheldon, Maddie (Bainbridge) 13.24

Girls 200-Meter Dash

Sandri, Lauren (S. Whidbey) 26.95

Winter, Mikaela (Ballard) 27.65

Mock, Lindsey (S. Whidbey) 27.80

Richards, Hope (S.Whidbey) 27.95

Girls 400-Meter Dash

East, Katherine (S. Whidbey) 1:00.45

Tyson, Felicia (Ballard) 1:01.31

Warman, Emily (Sedro-Woolley) 1:02.42

Girls 800-Meter Run

Johnson, Erica (S. Whidbey) 2:26.0

Pritchett, Hillary (Bainbridge) 2:26.3

Rennie, Cecily (Port Townsend) 2:28.4

Girls 1600-Meter Run

Johnson, Caroline (Bainbridge) 5:21.01

Wayman, Alyssa (Ballard) 5:29.68

Bakeman, Mary (S. Whidbey) 5:32.56

Girls 3200-Meter Run

Berg, Bridget (Ballard) 11:47.36

Gordon, Katy (S. Whidbey) 12:01.74

Wayman, Alyssa (Ballard) 12:05.79

Girls 4×100 Meter Relay

South Whidbey, 50.91 (meet record)

Ballard, 51.87

Bainbridge, 52.80

Girls 4×200 Meter Relay

South Whidbey, 1:48.97

Mountlake Terrace, 1:53.60

Port Townsend, 1:55.07

Girls Distance Medley

Ballard, 13:35.82

South Whidbey, 13:44.66

Bainbridge, 13:47.80

Girls High Jump

Schnitzer, Rosa (Sedro-Woolley) 4-08.00

Mock, Lindsey (S. Whidbey)

4-08.00

Berlin, Nicole (Mountlake)

4-08.00

Girls Pole Vault

Taylor, Fjeran (Kamiak) 10-00.00

Stonebridge, Ashley (S. Whidbey) 9-00.00

Juarez, Johanna (Ballard) 7-00.00

Girls Discus Throw

Pierce, Emily (Bainbridge) 113-09

Lance, Rebecca (Mountlake)

111-03

Ruggiero, Emma (S. Whidbey) 106-04

Boys 800-Meter Run

Gussin, Zack (Ballard) 2:01.05

Peters, JD (S. Whidbey) 2:01.38

Beeninga, Matt (Mountlake) 2:02.78

Boys 1600-Meter Run

Gussin, Zack (Ballard) 4:20.61

King, Kyle (Coupeville) 4:21.88

Peters, JD (S. Whidbey) 4:22.41

Boys Discus Throw

DeVos, Jordan (Nathan Hale)

140-05

Johnson, Donald (Sedro-Woolley) 139-00

Berry, Todd (S. Whidbey) 119-04