Track athletes flocked to one of three meets across the greater area Friday night — the Galion Kiwanis, Hillsdale's Bob Valentine Invitational, and the Bob Knoll Invitational at New London.
Out of the 19 area programs in action, two grabbed invitational team titles and there were more event champions than you could count.
Let's take a look at how everyone fared in the final weekend before conference meets.
Galion Kiwanis Invitational
Ashland (119) held off a short-handed Lexington (108⅓) for the boys team title at Unckrich Stadium led by first place finishes from Dakota Kruty in the 200 dash (22.82) and the quartet of Brady Anderson, Ty Bates, Jack Parsons, Brady Thompson in the 4x400 (3:29.77) to cap off the win on the track, and 18 points from Greyson Blough in the throws earlier in the evening as he won the shot put (52-9½) and was second in the discus (141-10).
The Arrows leaned on a total team effort in the win getting points however they could. Harley O'Brien and Braden Donatini finished second and third in the high hurdles, and the foursome of Bates, Anderson, O'Brien, Kruty were second in the 4x200. Killian O'Brien linked up with Avion Woodard, Eric Cao, and Jayden Colvin for third in the 4x100, Donatini and O'Brien swapped places with another second and third in the low hurdles, and Parsons was third in the two-mile. Colvin was runner-up in high jump, as was Bates in pole vault, while Kruty took third in the long jump.
Ashland girls were second to Ottawa-Glandorf led by Sadie Walter sweeping the hurdles (15.14 in 100m, 46.45 in 300m), nabbing second in the 100 dash, and third in the 200 dash. Frankie Rupsis won high jump at 5-4 and Oaklynn Burns rounded out the winners with a long jump title (17-02½). Burns also placed second in the 200 dash, Ava Cline third in the 3200, Aliviah Sauder fourth in the 800.
Lexington swept the 4x800 relays with Katya Prykhodko, Jersie Palmer, Morgan Harrod, and Evalynn Adkins clocking a 10:01.52 for a 16-second win, while Gage Devaney, Will Hooper, Latrell Hughes, and Trevor Reed (8:12.45) won their race by 21 seconds. The Minutemen also swept the mile with Prykhodko (5:15.97) and Lincoln Rice (4:30.05) taking top spots followed by Brailey Slone and Luke Haring as runner-up. The 4x100 of Tatum Stover, Allison Laury, Olivia Thomas, and Sylvia Secrist (50.50), Gabi Twedt in the 800 (2:26.59), and John Bartone in the two-mile (9:54.31) rounded out the winners; Slone was also second in the quarter-mile. The girls placed third overall as a team.
Other event winners:Ontario's Xavier Trent in the 800 (1:56.74), Audrey Mahon in the 400 (58.05), Elton Toska, Brady Rowe, Tre Fowler, Jermel Powell in the 4x100 (1:30.89) ... Shelby's Gavin Baker in the 110 hurdles (14.61), Princess Timko in the 100 (12.18), Arabella Ream in pole vault (10-0), Clayton Mitchell in discus (151-09) ... Colonel Crawford's Avery Powers in the 300 hurdles (40.50) and long jump (20-08) ... Galion's Jacob Chambers in the 100 (10.97), Camden Kuehlman in the 400 (51.65), Kuehlman, Chambers, Sam Evans, Zach Sallee in the 4x100 (43.21), Shaun Arthur in the seated 100 dash (48.29) and seated shot put (11-11).
Bob Valentine Invitational
Hillsdale's Hayden McFadden put on a show in his final meet in front of the home crowd winning the long jump (21-05¾), 200 dash (22.60) and 400 dash (51.45) helping the Falcons to a third place finish as a team; Cooper Baker won the 800 (2:00.92) as the team's lone other gold.
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Crestview's Max Durbin soared over everything in his way winning the high hurdles (15.20) by more than a second before getting a battle up until the finish line from Northwestern's Keagan Kostohryz in the low hurdles but eventually held him off for the .12-second win (41.22); Liam Kuhn took top spot in the pole vault clearing 14-0 in less than ideal conditions. On the girls side, Devon Hickey won the 200 dash (28.09) by a fraction of a second, Alina Durbin cruised in the two-mile (12:19.98) winning by almost 20 seconds, and the 4x100 (51.69) won by over a second.
Other event winners:Mapleton's Braylon Goon won the mile (4:50.67) by nearly five full seconds ... Black River's Austin Pamer, Lucas Olive, Kyle Vonderau, Noah Orgel in the 4x400 (3:33.84) ... Buckeye Central's Collin Perry in the high jump (6-0), girls 4x800 (10:51.76), girls 4x400 (4:24.82) ... Loudonville's Sophie Schultz in the 800 (2:25.46), Kaylinn Freelon in the 300 hurdles (51.35), Cama Skok in high jump (5-0), Logan Moore in long jump (15-11¼) ... Ashland's Kelsey Kaesar in shot put (34-00½).
Bob Knoll Invitational
Bucyrus boys (115½) made it four-straight Bob Knoll Invitational titles holding off runner-up Western Reserve. The Redmen were led by Karter Boggs winning the 1600 (4:27.90) and 3200 (9:47.10) both by sizeable margins — mile by 27 seconds over teammate AJ Griffin, two mile by 31 seconds — Christian Neal taking the 100 dash (11.88), and Ivan Pirnstill clearing 13-00 in pole vault for gold.
They also had strong showings from Dashawn Cosey who was runner-up in the 200 and 400, Maseo Hall and Dustin Feck were second and third in the low hurdles. Hall, Cosey, Feck, Neal teamed up for second in the 4x200 then saw Grady Weber swap in for Feck on the third place 4x100 relay.
Plymouth's Izaya Reynolds won the 200 (23.46) and 400 dash (51.88) before linking up with Isaiah Miller, Jeric Tackett, and Trevor Putt to narrowly win the 4x200 (1:35.58) by less than three-tenths of a second, and then with Miller, Tackett, and Cainan Kilgore to win the 4x400 (3:40.52). Miller also won the high hurdles (16.17) in a photo finish edging out Wellington's Ari Wreyford by four-hundredths of a second.
South Central girls (126½) were second to St. Paul despite arguably the most impressive performance of the night from Autumn Fry who was a four-event champion. After sweeping the throws with a 34-11¾ in shot put and 119-10 in discus — 20 feet further than anyone else — she won the 100 dash (13.12) and joined Emily Lamoreaux, Kaili Ingram, and Falynn Schumacher in the 4x100 (54.06). Lamoreaux won all three events she competed in sweeping the hurdles with a 17.38 in the high and 51.56 in the low; Lauren Ingram won the high jump at 5-0.
Other event winners:New London's Ryan Twinning in the 800 (2:04.38), Twinning, Garret Carruthers, Trace Landis, Carter Hicks in the 4x800 (8:49.93).
zholden@gannett.com|419-617-6018|Twitter/X:@Zachary_Holden
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal:Ashland boys win Galion Kiwanis, Bucyrus boys four-peat at Bob Knoll