ONEKAMA — The way it all shook out was a bit muddy, but the result was nonetheless familiar.

On a normal, less rain-laden track and field season, the West Michigan D League title would be decided by a combination of three jamboree meets and an end-of-the-year league championship.

But the 2011 season just wasn’t meant to be so cut and dry — not nearly as dry at all.

Only one jamboree stayed true to the preseason schedule while weather postponed another and cancelled a third all together. The championship was also pushed back, from May 11 to Wednesday’s fittingly rainy afternoon. But as unpredictable as Mother Nature has been this spring, the Onekama boys and girls remain anything but. Each Portager team continued their dominance Wednesday by collecting another consecutive title.

The Portager girls, who already won this season’s previous pair of jamborees and won a Division 4 regional championship this past Saturday, captured the league title with a score of 208. Brethren placed second with a score of 102 and Mason County Eastern was third with 70.

With 10 first-place finishes, the Onekama boys picked up 191 points while CCA (111) finished second and Brethren (44) third.

“We didn’t really think about canceling it today,” said first-year Onekama boys coach Anthony Torres of the rainy conditions, which only caused cancellation of the pole vault. “We kind of went into this trying to get enough events in as we could. If it got too bad, we would have adjusted, but I’m glad we got to get it in, get it done, and I’m feeling much better now that we won.

“This was for all the marbles,” he said of the three-way tie for first place heading into the event amongst his Portagers, Big Rapids Crossroads Charter Academy and Brethren. “I didn’t want to be the first one to lose the conference in a while. We feel great.”

The Portagers took a first and third place in the season’s previous pair of jamborees which put them in a tie with CCA, who took a first and third, and Brethren who finished second in each.

“We won that first one, and then I kind of juggled some things around the second time around, and we ended up coming in third, which forced the tie,” Torres explained. “So, today we definitely wanted to make sure we put our best foot forward to win and we put everyone in their normal events.”

Torres’ first league win comes off the heels of former Onekama boys track coach Mickey Story’s successful tenure. In 30 years at the helm of the Portagers, Story captured 10 WMD titles and five in the Northwest Conference.

“The kids had great times even with the wind and the rain,” Torres said. “A lot of them had surprising days today, and I’m just glad to keep that streak alive.”

Winning first for Onekama was Lewis Bartlett in the 110- and 300-meter hurdles as well as the high jump, Rease Heiler in the 1,600-meter run, Tyler Fogarty in the 100- and 200-meter dash, John Girven in the 3,200 and Raul Torres in shot put. Also finishing first was the 1,600-meter relay team of Fogarty, Shane Peterson, Ryan Pienta and Tyler Groenwald and the 3,200-meter relay team of Peterson, Heiler, Pienta and Groenwald.

see Individual Stats from Conference Meet