Monday, May 3rd, 2010
Local teams have good day at New Bremen
Cardinal Invitational
By Gary R. Rasberry
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
New Bremen's Michael Travis helped the Cardinals' boys track team to a second-place finish at their Cardinal Invitational on Saturday.
NEW BREMEN - With conference track meets coming up in just over a week, area teams gathered at Cardinal Field in New Bremen for the 10th annual Cardinal Invitational.
While Northwest Conference power Spencerville picked up the first place trophies for both boys and girls, area teams fared well. Marion Local took second in the girls while the host Cardinals took runner-up to the Bearcats in the boys. St. Marys swept the third-place finishes in both boys and girls.
"It was a good meet," said New Bremen boys coach Gary Jones. "Weather cooperated with us today and that makes it better. It was good competition."
Among the highlights on the day was possibly an early look at the MAC boys hurdles race as New Bremen's Zach Speckman swept the 110 and 300 hurdles. Parkway's Hank Bevington took second in the 110 and fourth in the 300 while Ben Fortkamp was fourth in the 110 and third in the 300, with Devon Fitzgerald of St. Marys also in the top four in both events.
Also pacing the Cardinals was Justin Eilerman, who won the 1,600 run and took seconds in the 3,200 - where he saw Sidney's Aaron Dinzeo break the meet record he set last year - and in the high jump, where St. Marys' Scott Kinkley matched the 6-0 mark with Eilerman and Marion Local's Greg Schwieterman, but took the tiebreaker on jumps.
Michael Travis added a win in the 400 dash while the Cardinals opened the running schedule in taking the 3,200 relay.
"Some of our guys improved today," said Jones. "We're starting to get healthy and starting to figure out where to put some of the guys. Overall, real good day for us."
Kinkley made it a two-win day in taking the long jump by two inches over Spencerville's Daniel Binkley. Tanner Zizelman helped the St. Marys cause with a top-effort of 13 feet to win the pole vault.
Parkway, which finished seventh in the boys, was led by Adam Schlemmer winning the 800 run.
The Lady Flyers got just two wins on the day, taking the 800 relay and seeing Abby Schmitmeyer take the pole vault. Marion did have plenty of points in the events, especially throwing and sprints.
"We went after it pretty good, I thought," said Flyers coach Matt Schmackers. "Tried to score as many points as we could. ... I was happy to see everybody compete."
St. Marys was paced in the girls by Mekayla Breland, who set two records in the throwing events on the day, breaking the mark she set last year in the shot with a throw of 41-7, then adding over a foot to the discus mark with an effort of 120-4.
"They did what they wanted to do and it was good," said Roughriders coach Kathy Sites. "We were hurt after Kaysha (Dietz) went down (after finishing fifth in the 100 dash. She had three events left. After that, those that scored stepped up and made sure they scored high for us."
New Bremen got a win in the girls meet from Elaynne Speckman, who took the 300 hurdles to go with here second place finish in the 100 hurdles.
Marion Local, Parkway and St. Henry will get the final tuneup for the MAC this week at the Mercer County Knights of Columbus Meet on Thursday and Friday at Cavalier Stadium in Coldwater. New Bremen heads to Versailles on Tuesday before the MAC meet May 11 and 14 at Fort Recovery, with St. Marys joining Cardinals at Versailles.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Marion Local's Brianna Hess helped the Lady Flyers to a runner-up finish in the girls division of the Cardinal Invitational with a second place finish in the 100-meter dash.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Marion Local's Ben Fortkamp, left, and St. Marys' Devon Fitzgerald, right, compete in a preliminary heat of the 110-meter hurdles at the Cardinal Invitational on Saturday. Both qualified for the finals and finished in the top four. Behind Fortkamp is New Bremen's Ben Chaney. St. Marys finished third in both the boys and girls divisions as Spencerville swept the team titles.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Parkway's Bailey King, left, and St. Marys' Lauren Aller compete in a heat of the 100-meter hurdles at Saturday's Cardinal Invitational at New Bremen. Both qualified for the finals.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
St. Henry's Ryan Goettemoeller, right, tries to stay ahead of Parkway's Shawn Miller in a heat of the 400-meter dash at Saturday's Cardinal Invitational at New Bremen. Goettemoeller placed third in the finals of the race.
