The Lew Wallace and West Side boys track teams have a brotherly type of competition between them -- literally.
Freshman Darius Mahome runs for the Hornets, while older brother Deante Mahome competes for the Cougars. Deante became involved in the gifted-and-talented program at West Side, but the family lives in the Lew Wallace school district.
At Tuesday's Northwest Conference Championship meet at Lew Wallace, Deante beat his younger sibling in the 110-meter high hurdles before Darius got revenge in the 300 intermediates.
"I try to show him little brothers can win sometimes," Darius said with a grin.
Unfortunately for Darius, big brother's team came out on top as West Side won the conference crown.
"Lew Wallace is always a strong competitor," Cougars coach Gene Johnson said. "Right now, Lew Wallace is really competing well, but that's what I expect anyway."
Even down to the coaches, both teams share a mutual respect while still wanting to go out and win.
The Cougars "are great competition," Hornets coach Charles Jones said. "We always have a real competitive time with them. They have a great program. If we do well against them, we can do well against anyone in the state."
On the girls side, West Side rode a strong performance from junior Kortney Mabone in the 100 hurdles to capture the conference championship. Mabone won her event in a personal-record time of 15.60 seconds.
"I don't really like the 100 personally; I prefer the 300," Mabone said.
Mabone showed support for teammate Ashley Stewart, who fell on the second-to-last hurdle in the 100s, by coming over to her after the race and telling her she "can redeem yourself."
Leadership like that is what West Side coach Veronica Williams has come to expect from Mabone.
"She's come a long way," Williams said. "She used to be kind of quiet and shy, but now she's real aggressive. She takes charge in her ways. I want her to stay aggressive."
Williams used this meet to make sure the roster is just right before sectionals.
"When you put your final list in the competition, that's it," she said. "So you got to roll with it. This is the last go-round before I put it in."
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