Talented underclassmen lead West York to first league division title in program history
"It's blank," Lynn Fuhrman said in one breath.
"And now it's not," she said as temporary stickers were placed on the West York girls' track and field banner.
It was clear how special their final dual-meet win over Kennard-Dale was when a pair of team members picked up a cooler jug and dumped ice water on their first-year coach. That win completed an undefeated season for the Bulldogs and the first league division title in program history.
The feat is more remarkable considering the Bulldogs hadn't won more than two meets in any of the last 10 seasons.
Furhman, who became the high school coach just two weeks before the season started, credits a talented group of underclassmen combined with a committed group of upperclassmen for the team's success.
"We have a lot of depth overall," Fuhrman said. "It's not just one person getting points, we are getting points in multiple events."
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Megan Chikezie, Caydence King, Minh Nguyen, Bri Miller, Juliette Zech, Addy Swartz, Za'Mya Harris and Fiona Myers make up the group of freshmen and sophomores Fuhrman counted on so much this season.
In their final regular-season meet, that group accounted for almost half of West York's 104 points against Kennard-Dale. Chikezie and King led the way with a pair of wins each.
That doesn't mean the upperclassmen were slackers, because they weren't.
Juniors Alita Paragon had a first and second, and My'Angel Sailisbury had two wins, and seniors Faith Walker and Amelia Myers each won two events to lead the upperclassmen.
With the league meet right around the corner, West York will find out how they stack up against the other divisions. They already know their 4x400 and 4x800 relay teams produced some of the fastest times this season.
Walker, Nguyen, Myers, Paragon and Salisbury each produced one of the top-five times, height or distances among league athletes this season. In some instances, they only trail athletes in a different district classification than the Bulldogs.
"After we won the first two meets, they were all gung-ho," Fuhrman said, "they are what they call 'locked in.' And they were willing to do whatever they had to do."
It wasn't until the Bulldogs defeated traditional division foes New Oxford and Dover that they realized an undefeated season was within their grasp.
And now they have the banner to prove it.
Shelly Stallsmith covers York-Adams high school sports for GameTimePA and the USAToday Network. Connect with her by email mstallsmith@ydr.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter @ShelStallsmith.