WHEELING — The 48th Annual Dick Dei Track Classic brought together over 30 teams on the concourse of Wheeling Park High School on Saturday, with multiple local athletes finishing atop the podium in their events, and the Patriots from Olentangy Liberty repeating as both boys and girls champions at the end of the day.

Another pair of Patriot teams, those of hosting Wheeling Park, had impressive outings as well, with the girls finishing in third as a team and the boys finishing seventh.

“I was really happy with today,” Wheeling Park girls head coach Andy Fletcher said. “Relays did really well- 4×800 came in second, shuttles were second, 4×200 was third, 4×400 was fifth. We got a lot of points over in field events too.”

Park’s girls had two individuals atop the podium- Julia Dunaway and Niki Robitaille.

Dunaway finished first in the 200-meter dash, running a 27.55, and came in second in the 100-meter dash with a 12.81.

“Julia just kind of ate everybody up in the sprints,” Fletcher said.

“She’s not really raced track since middle school, but we were able to convince her to come out and it’s worked out pretty well for everyone.”

Robitaille finished in first in the girls high jump, clearing 4 feet 10 inches.

K’Lyn Neider also came in a close second in the 100-meter hurdles, finishing in 16.33.

The pair are part of a strong core for the Patriots’ girls.

“K’Lyn has been working pretty hard since last year, Nickie has shown a whole lot of improvement,” Fletcher said.

“I’m very happy, we’ve got a lot more seniors this year than last year and they’re stepping up, but we also have a very solid freshman and sophomore class who are kind of pushing the seniors a little bit.”

Fletcher’s relays also performed well- the Patriots’ 4×800 relay came in second, their 4×100-meter shuttle hurdles came in second, and their 4×200 relay came in third.

Fletcher was satisfied with his team across the board.

“Even in the other events where we didn’t place I saw a lot of strength,” Fletcher said. “I’m looking forward to the back-half of the season.”

Martins Ferry’s Alanna Williams, who recently broke the meet record for the 800-meter at the Bellaire Relays, kept up her hot streak by breaking the Martins Ferry school record in the 1600-meter- something that is becoming old-hat for the Purple Riders junior.

“Alanna is probably one of the nicest, but most competitive, girls I’ve ever coached,” Martins Ferry head coach Greg Steele said. “This is the second time she’s broken the school record in the 1600. I do know her goal is to drop below five minutes. She overcame some cold weather because it was frigid up there.”

“She was disappointed in herself, even though she set the school record, because she didn’t beat the girl ahead of her from Liberty.”

Williams ran a 5:03.44 to finish second behind Olentangy Liberty’s Elena Aldrink.

“That was the reason we took her up there, just to give her a chance to run against some better competition,” Steele said. “Her position coach, Chrissy Lewis, she does a great job training her. She does a great job getting her to be as competitive as she can be.”

Around the midway point of the day, all eyes were at the front of the track, where the family of Nick Bedway gathered to accept a plaque honoring the former Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register Executive Sports Editor as the Honorary Referee of the meet.

Bedway’s wife and children were there to accept the award from meet organizer Sean Dei. Bedway passed away in 2022.

On the boys’ side of competition, Wheeling Park’s day was highlighted by JT Pockl’s elevation to the top of the high jump competition, finishing first after clearing six feet two inches.

“I was super pumped and excited for JT,” Wheeling Park boys head coach Zach Phillips said. “He’s always working in practice, trying to fine-tune his approach and technique. He’s one of the hardest working guys we have, so for him to go out and win that today is awesome for him and awesome for our program. We’re excited to see what he can do in the second half of the season and we’re excited for JT.”

The Patriots’ seventh-place effort also included a third-place finish from their 4×100-meter relay.

“I thought we came out and competed well,” Phillips said. “I was proud of the guys who competed today. We’re always looking to improve and get better each week. We had some guys in different spots today- still trying to figure out our best relays going forward. Overall I’m proud of how our guys competed at a pretty good meet with good teams.”

Brooke turned in strong performances in their boys’ field events. They took the second and third spots in the discus- Marcus Reed came in second with a throw of 129-10, and Elijah Lanigan came in third with a throw of 125-10. Jude Blake earned gold in the shot put with a measurement of 42-10.25.