It was never all that close.

The Warrenton girls track team outscored Liberty by 22 points to cruise to its third straight Gateway Athletic Conference North championship Friday.

“I was ecstatic,” Head Coach Steve Wurtzel said. 

Wurtzel, who is in his first year with the varsity program after previously working at the middle school level, had worked with nearly half of this year’s roster before they reached high school.

“The girls have been in the program for a while now, so that has helped,” he said. “But it’s still surreal.”

Lalita Andrews got things going early with a first-place finish in the high jump.

Like most meets this season, she cleared 5 feet early in the competition before attempting to break the school record of 5-foot-2.

“She wanted to go to 5-3 after clearing 5 feet because she wanted the record, but we were more concerned with building confidence going into districts,” Wurtzel said.

It didn’t matter.

Andrews cleared 5-3 to break the record, then turned around and cleared 5-4 to set another mark for herself.

“She was getting her speed right and getting her jumps in the right location,” Wurtzel said. “Everything just aligned just right for her.”

Andrews followed that up with a second-place finish in the triple jump with a distance of 31 feet, 4.5 inches, despite not competing in the event in over four years.

“We threw her in the triple jump to try and get some points there, and she hadn’t triple jumped since middle school,” Wurtzel said. “But she pulled it off. She’d be a long shot to advance past sectionals, but when you take an athletic senior on an event they just picked up, you start to wonder how far they could go.”

Teammate Riley Cox jumped 33 feet, 1 3/4 inches to win the event.

Andrews also ran in the first-place-winning 800 relay team, along with Allison Tonioli, Rylie Cox and Emma Housewright.

The quartet won the event in 1 minute, 54.5 seconds, its best time of the season.

“She had some good days in the relays, too,” Wurtzel said of Andrews

Courtney Richardson set a personal record in the 300 hurdles after winning the race in 49.79 and shaving nearly two seconds off her previous best.

“It was a huge P.R. in the 300,” Wurtzel said. “It’s all about getting that good start and striding out hard, and it paid off. That put her in a really good range for sectionals.”

Richardson also finished second in the 100 hurdles in 17.81 seconds, just ahead of Tonioli, who finished third in 18.32.

The team returned to practice Monday, turning its focus to the district meet Saturday at Westminster.

Going forward, Wurtzel hopes the focus remains on being the best in the GAC North for years to come.

“Looking ahead to the future, it’s promising,” he said. “Now it’s about sustaining and building on what you’ve got to get stronger.”