Track & Field: Harvard-Westlake girls go the distance

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Despite a brief moment of panic when Cami Chapus dropped the baton to begin her anchor leg, the Studio 
City Harvard-Westlake girls distance medley clocked 11:45.18 to repeat as champion at the 45th annual 
Arcadia Invitational.
The Wolverines, who ran 11:22:23 to set the national outdoor record by nine seconds at the New Balance 
Nationals in North Carolina last June, overcame a mishandled exchange between Elle Wilson and Chapus 
to outclass a loaded field and shatter this season’s previous-best time of 12:00.64 by The Woodlands (Texas).
Amy Weissenbach, the Gatorade national girls’ track and field athlete of the year in 2011, staked Harvard-
Westlake to a big lead, running the first 1200 meters in 3:36.66. Freshman Shea Copeland held the lead for 
the 400 meter sprint before junior Elle Wilson kept the lead for the next two laps. Victory seemed assured 
until Chapus dropped the baton and was passed by two runners before getting back into the race.
‘I always struggle at pacing for [the 1200] because it’s not a standard distance--it’s either a short 1600 or a 
long 800,’ said Weissenbach, who heads for Stanford in the fall along with Chapus. ‘I try to treat this like 
a long 800, because that way I can go out fast.’
Chapus, the defending state champion in the 1600 meters, covered the four-lap anchor leg in 4:49.5 after 
averting the minor crisis. Redondo’s Lyndsey Mull pushed Chapus for the first 800 meters, but the 
Wolverines’ senior pulled away to give her team a sweep of the sprint and distance medleys.
Harvard-Westlake, which had won the sprint medley relay on Friday, ran the fifth-fastest distance medley
time in meet history and second-place Redondo (11:53.53) ran the seventh-fastest.
-- Steve Galluzzo
Caption: Harvard-Westlake’s winning distance medley relay team of (L-R) Cami Chapus, Elle Wilson, 
Shea Copeland and Amy Weissenbach. Credit: Steve Galluzzo / For The Times