Success came in many forms during last week's Colonial League Track and Field Championships.

For some, it was a place. For others, those triumphant moments presented themselves as a time, distance, height or simply the satisfaction from achieving a personal goal.

But one thing was clear: Northwestern was once again one of the league's top teams after the two days of competition at Whitehall High School.

The Lady Tigers, who finished second in the team standings, took gold in the 3200-meter relay with a meet record time of 9:31.65, breaking their own mark of 9:36.46, which was set last year.

Three of the four members of last year's team (Sabrina Mertz, Sarah Segan and Rachele Cerrone) were back this season, with Carly Pierce taking the place of graduate Haley Yost.

And it was Yost that would typically run the final leg for that group, a task that fell to Cerrone this time around.

"There was definitely a lot of pressure," Cerrone said. "Coming into the season it was always Haley (Yost) running at the end.

"It's actually really scary to run last because you're the last leg. If you mess up, it's all on you. You have the rest of the team but there's still a lot of pressure on you. But it's a lot of fun knowing that I didn't let the team down."

While Cerrone noted that running the anchor leg was somewhat nerve-wracking, the senior acknowledged that past experience, and success, helped reduce some of the anxiety for all four members of the team.

"It helps us even if we think we're not ready. We know we are. We put in the work the whole season and we've been at states with tons of competition," she said. "So coming here, there isn't as much pressure as states, but there are still a lot of good teams here and anything could happen."

Mertz gave the group a lead with a surge just before her handoff to Segan and the quartet never looked back. Segan and Pierce were able to extend the advantage over second-place Southern Lehigh (9:38.90), and Cerrone closed the race with a strong finish that prevented the competition from gaining any ground.

Segan was also a part of the 1600-meter relay team that broke the meet record en route to a second-place finish in the event.

The quartet of Emily Renner, Alexis Gawelko, Mertz and Segan finished second to Palisades (4:03.23) in 4:03.69, as both schools broke the previous mark of 4:08.24, which was set by Palisades in 1986.

Segan ran the final leg of the relay nearly stride-for-stride against the Pirates' Anna Robinson, who took the lead in the last 100 meters.

The two also squared off in the 400, with Robinson once again edging Segan, winning in 59.14 to her counterpart's 59.65. Mertz finished third with a time of 1:00.16.

"She pushed me in the 400 and she pushed me in the relay," said Segan. "And that's what you need."

Segan didn't have to wait too long to get a measure of redemption, winning the 800 a short time later in 2:22.56.

Following a second-place finish in the 300 hurdles on the first day, Gawelko came back Wednesday with a shot at gold in the 100-meter hurdles after finishing with the fastest time in the previous day's preliminaries.

It took two attempts and nearly 30 minutes, but the senior eventually came away with the win.

A timing and scoring issue forced the race to be rerun after all eight girls went the full 100 meters, with Gawelko having crossed the line in front. Unfazed, the senior came back and did it again, this time without issue, to take first with a time of 15.75.

"I felt like I had a second chance," she said. "I didn't really feel like I ran my best the first time so I was ready to go out and try to fix everything I wasn't doing right the first time. I'm very happy with how I did."

Despite dealing with a quad injury suffered on the first day of competition, Natcheli Gomes came back strong on Wednesday to give the Lady Tigers a second-place finish in the high jump, clearing 5-0.

"Today, I definitely could have done better," Gomes said. "Next week (at districts) I'm going to aim to do the best that I possibly can and see if I can get to states."

Cam Richardson gave Northwestern two gold medals in the boys' competition, winning the 100 (11.22) and 200 (22.58).

"It's nice to be able to come out here and run the 100 and 200 and have made the finals for both and get to face good competition," said Richardson. "I feel like the 200 is my better race, and has been my whole career, but it's good to be able to do both."

In addition to Richardson, Brayden Heller also earned a podium finish for the Tigers, taking second in the 800 with a time of 2:02.08.