Being one of the best small-school track teams in the state did not allow the South Whidbey boys and girls to make a big impression at Friday’s and Saturday’s Pasco Invitational, but it did get them an invitation.

And with that invitation, the Falcons used the fastest pre-state field of track athletes to pace them to some of their best results of the season.

Though both teams finished out of the top 20 overall, Falcon runners came up with some of their finest performances of the season under the sunny, southeastern Washington sky.

Chief among them was senior Andy Wills, who in a fast preliminary heat of the 200-meter dash shattered a South Whidbey school record barely a year old. With his eye on Cody Moore, a top finisher at last year’s 2A state meet, Wills pushed to the head of the field then across the finish line in 22.24 seconds. The mark eclipses the former record mark of 22.64 held by South Whidbey junior Nick Plastino.

Wills said he knew he was headed for a fast time in the opening seconds of his race.

“When I knew I beat Cody Moore, I knew I had a good time,” he said.

But that race would be his last good time of the day. Wills pulled a hamstring muscle in a heat of the 4×100 relay and had to withdraw from the 200 finals, as well as the open 100 and 400.

Lighting it up for the girls in Pasco was the 4×200 relay team of Katherine East, Nicole Mock, Sarah Olson and Claudia GIl-Osorio, which blasted to the top 2A time in the state with a 1:48.70 finish. That time, however, was still not quick enough to place the four Falcon girls in the top eight. They took 15th.

The girls were speedy in the 4×100 as well as Olson, Brittney Peterson, Katie Watson and Gil-Osorio ran to a season-best time of 51.62, but out of the points in 17th place.

Junior Katy McGillen came up with the Falcons’ top individual placings, taking 13th in the javelin and triple jump and 11th in the high jump.

Other highlights for the meet, according to South Whidbey coach Doug Fulton was Alex Hoelting’s 2:05 800-meter leg in the distance medley relay, James Sundquist’s personal record time of 10:07 in the 3,200 and Gil-Osorio’s personal best 17.86 in the 100.

Early in the week and closer to home, the Falcon boys and girls travelled to Mount Baker High School to compete in a North Cascades Conference triangular.

Though Fulton could not get official results from the meet, he said the South Whidbey girls did win the meet. The team now has an unbeaten streak that goes back to May 2000, when the Falcons lost to Lynden Christian.

The South Whidbey boys lost to Mount Baker at the meet by one point.

Individual winners at the meet were Wills in the 100 and 200, and in the 4×100 and 4×400 relays; JD Peters in the 3,200; Travis Tornga in the high jump; Kyle McGillen in the triple jump; Katy McGillen in the javelin and 100 hurdles; Becky Gabelein in the 300 hurdles; Gil-Osorio in the 200 with a personal-best time of 26.3 seconds; Katherine East in the 400 with a 61.3 personal best; Julie Gabelein in the 3,200; and sophomore Nancy Godsey in the 1,600.

The Falcons compete next in the Westling Invitational, to be held Saturday at Waterman Field.