In the most epic of fashions, West Springfield came from behind to win the VHSL Class 6 State Team Title.
Winning a state team title comes down to a lot of pieces falling in your direction and in some cases, comes down to four of your athletes running the race of their lives. That is exactly what happened when West Springfield out performed their seed time by 5 seconds and went from ranked 10th to finishing 2nd.
That quartet of Joseph Blumberg, Enan Baskerville, Vishal Green, and Gavin Reichard made it happen. It was their 8 points that helped them catch Thomas Dale who prior to the 4x4 led by five points. Though they may have sealed the deal, it was a total team effort.
It all started with the high jump. In that event Paris Johnson and Robbie Kugler combined for three points. Their teammates Brady Echols and Harrison Crim tallied another seven points in the shot put. Duante Lord carried his own in the triple jump and added five more.
West Springfield also finished seventh place in the 4x800 with the team of Gavin Reichard, Henry Anderson, Vishal Green, and Cael Alonzo to score two more and bring their day one total to 17 points.
On the second day, it was Lord popping a big long jump early to get the Spartans eight more points. Just an hour or two later Joseph Blumberg and Michael Murray scored a combined six points in the pole vault and just like that West Springfield had 31 points.
They really did love the relays because they also finished fifth, good enough for four more points, in the 4x200m relay. That team was comprised of Mark-Anthony Whyte, Enan Baskerville, Duante Lord, and Devante Rudolph.
In the final individual of the day, the 3200, Henry Anderson finished 6th to score West Springfield three points. Exactly the same amount that they won by.