The Western boys and girls track and field teams turned in strong showings in the Big-Orange Invitational Saturday at Hamilton Heights. The Panthers' won the boys meet, and finished second in the girls meet.

The undefeated Western boys totaled 157 points to finish well ahead of runner-up Tipton (92) in the eightteam field, Peru (86.5) was third, Hamilton Heights (51.5) was fifth, and Eastern (41) took sixth.

Western standout Kyle Walsh set two meet records, in the 800 and 1,600 runs, while teammates Blayne Burkholder (pole vault) and Jon Brittain (shot put) scored one meet record each. Tommy Jenkins (100) and Brandon Youngdale (high jump) also won an event for Western, which scored, in all but one event

"Really, applaud Western, they were just everywhere in all the events," Eastern coach Paul Nicholson said.

"This was a big meet for us," Western coach Dana Neer said. "We have focused on this meet from the beginning [of the season]. We were able to score pretty convincingly in every event - the only event we did not score in was the long jump. Our kids were ready to go and we tried to be the most united group we could."

Neer praised the new meet record holders, and noted contributions from younger Panthers like Michael Marley (fourth in the 3,200), Jacob McDorman (frith in the shot put), and Youngdale, all of whom were competing in their tirst major meet. He said a key was senior captain Noah Hoover.

"It's people like him who are excellent leaders verbally and mentally for our team," Neer said pointing to Hoover's fourth-place finish in the 400 and strong leg in the Western 1,600 relay team, which took second. "His style and his leadership are key to the success of our team."

Eastern got victories from Mike Murphy in the discus, and by the 3200 relay squad of Brad Dean, Brent Hickman, Jonathan Fanslet and Tony Martin. The four members of the relay squad each set personal best split times to help that unit post its best-ever time.

"Mike Murphy won the discus and our 3200 relay, all juniors, started the meet off really great with a win and personal, career-best times," Nicholson said.

On the girls side, Western junior Tiffany Reida won two events and placed second in another help lead the Panthers to a second place finish in the eight-team field.

Speedway took first place with 94 points and was followed by Western (84), Tipton (81), Hamilton Heights (76) and Eastern (54). Peru (23) finished in last place.

Reida took wins in the 100 dash and the long jump, and she was runner-up in the 200 dash. She finished as the top female scorer of the meet. Teammate Annina Gruber won the 1,600 run.

"We did well," Western assistant coach Krista McClure said. "It all came down to the final event [the 1,600 relay]. We were six points down going into the final relay - our team did great, but we just couldn't pull off enough points to win the meet. Still, we were excited to finish second. There were three other [MidIndiana Conference] teams there and we beat all of them, which gave the girls a good boost.

Eastern received strong showings from Rachel Voorhis, who won the shot put and placed second in the discus, and from Holly Graber, who took top honors in the 400 dash.