Special Coverage

Westbury Girls Relay Team Runs Circles Around Competition

The need for speed is alive and well for the tradition-rich Westbury Rebels track and field program. This year's girl's team entered the State meet having won the 4A Region III championship.

"That was very exciting because last year we got third, I believe," Junior Kristian Austin said. "We came in here to win."

And winning has been what Westbury has been doing all season long behind the powerhouse relay team. Ranked among the state's fastest in both the 4x100 and 4x200 relays, the team is young with only one senior amongst the ranks.

"They're real young and talented," Coach Raasin McIntosh said. "They're good girls to work with. They're funny at times. Sometimes they can be dramatic, but in the end they have big hearts. They love to come out and practice. They love to come out and perform in front of people, and they really have a great talent for track."

The lone senior on the team, Nicole Washington, believes that hard work and dedication is what has gotten the squad this far.

One of those dedicated runners is junior Christy Udoh, who not only anchored both relays, but also raced to victory in the 200 meters at the Regional Meet.

"She has really grown as an athlete," McIntosh said. "I'm very proud of her. She's also academically very sound. She's just a great talent."

"I'm taking it as a step forward because last year I kind of shied away from everything, and this year, I told myself that this year is my year to go out and try and do better than I did last year," Udoh said.

And while hard work and dedication has gotten them this far, so has coaching. Led by former Westbury track start, McIntosh was on the Rebels track and field team that took home four straight State Championship titles from 1997-2000.

"We're just trying to continue the tradition, but not only continue the tradition but understand that we're making history in our own way," McIntosh said. "They are their own team and they want to make history in their own way."