For the second straight week, Billy Langeveld was in a class by himself.

He'd rather have company but he's doing a good job competing on his own.

The 19-year-old OAC student at Laurier clocked a record 5:31.6 in the open boys' wheelchair 1,500 metres yesterday at the WOSSAA track and field championships at TD Waterhouse Stadium, finishing just before a downpour.

It was one of two records set yesterday and Langeveld's second in as many weeks, having won the Thames Valley Central title last week in 6:10.7.

"I'm very happy," he said, adding that setting personal bests serve as his motivation in the absence of actual competition.

"I just want to get out there and get it done. It would be easier racing against someone else, but you've got to work with what you've got.

"I've only been racing since last year. Basketball's my main sport (with the wheelchair Forest City Flyers). I got involved with track to help the school team and stay involved."

Langeveld suffered a broken back and dislocated spinal cord in an accident a couple of years ago, and as a result he has very limited use of his legs.

"It was tough, but I had a lot of support from family and friends," he said. "And I found it was a lot easier to get used to once I found basketball."

Langeveld is aiming for sub-five-minute time and a medal at next month's OFSAA championship in St. Catharines and is improving rapidly enough to achieve that. "Technique's the big thing I didn't have last year," he said. "I've learned how to pace myself and how to take corners correctly."

Huskies howling again

For the first time since 1989, Stratford Northwestern has a track and field team.

The Huskies qualified 31 athletes for WOSSAA.

The track program died off at the school after coach John Cameron left 14 seasons ago, but it has been revived through the efforts of South Huron grad Randy Johnson, who won OFSAA gold in senior boys' javelin in 1994 and went on to a solid university career at Southeast Missouri State. At one point he held the Ohio Valley Conference record in the javelin.

"We just beat the bushes," Northwestern athletic director Martin Ritsma said of getting athletes, but he said Johnson is the main catalyst.

"To do something like this, you need someone who's committed, someone who bleeds the sport -- and that's Randy," said Ritsma, who helps out along with Rob James and David Finnie.