The Daily Standard
Story Archive
Celina's Colin Buening leads St. Marys' Tyler Birt in the 1,600-meter run at Grand Lake Health System Field on Tuesday.
ST. MARYS - With its invite coming up Friday, the St. Marys track team looked at Tuesday's tri-meet as a chance to tune up and test its strength against a pair of Western Buckeye League foes.
Celina, which has its eye on WBL titles this season, came out with the win Tuesday, with the girls 59 1/2 points ahead of the Roughriders and the boys three points ahead of Shawnee at Grand Lake Health System Field.
"We're feeling a bit of the injury bug on both guys and girls, so we're trying to work on that," Celina coach Eric Wagner said. "But overall, the competition today was good. … It's a good feeler for league, where we're at versus the other teams we'll be competing against. I think our guys have a legitimate shot (to win the WBL)."
The Celina girls cruised to a win even with juniors Allison Schwieterman and Ellie Hitchcock limited by injury and illness, respectively. Raven Harris helped the Bulldogs start off on the right foot by passing Shawnee in the second leg of the 4x800 relay, and Allana Carroll and Kaylie Dameron pulled away for a 15-second win. Harris and Carroll also ran in the victorious 4x400 to end the day.
Celina's Amelia Lutz throws shot put at Grand Lake Health System Field on Tuesday.
Schwieterman held off teammate Nevaeh Huser in the 100, Dameron led from the third lap on in a comfortable 3,200 victory, and Amelia Lutz threw 127-10 in the discus and 36-10 1/2 in the shot put to give Celina first in both events. Kira Dirksen won the 200, Natalie Dross took first in the 100 hurdles, Rachel Rammel claimed first in the long jump and Huser won the pole vault by clearing 10 feet.
"Across the board, this is the time of year when your times should start dropping and your distances should be getting better, because the grind is done for the most part," Wagner said. "We're going to practice hard through this week going into county next week, see where we sit. Our little trials are over. We've got to get set into where we need to be."
The Shawnee boys pulled ahead after a win in the 4x400 before Colin Fokine, Kaden Steed and Tim Hiles took three of the top five spots in the pole vault to give Celina the meet victory. Fokine cleared 11 feet to finish second to Isaac Torsell of St. Marys, who cleared 11-6.
Celina took first in the 4x800 by five seconds over Shawnee, Jon Lutz won the 110 hurdles and was second to Luke Lazarich in the 300 hurdles, and Jake Knapke held off the Roughriders' Tyler Birt to win the 800. Colin Buening ran a dominant 10:06 for a 28-second win in the 3,200.
In the field events, Kaden Murlin won the discus with a throw of 157-0 1/2 feet, six feet past his PR, and won the shot put with a throw of 52-5.
Already banged up, the Celina boys suffered a blow when Layndin Alidou, who won the 100, landed badly in the long jump and hurt his ankle. Alidou was carted off, and Wagner said he was still waiting for word at the end of the meet.
"Waiting to hear back from the x-rays," Wagner said. "If he sprained it, we'll just give him time off and bring him back for league, see if he can just run 400 and 4x400. I don't know. We've got a lot of things we've got to figure out now."
Alidou claimed second in the long jump with a mark of 20-4 1/2.
On her home track, St. Marys' Maria Jutte was gunning for the school record in the 800 and took a substantial lead by the backstretch of the first lap.
The record chase went sideways with about 300 meters to go when her shoe slipped off, but Jutte ran the rest of the way in one shoe and still secured a 8 1/2-second win with a time of 2:28.2.
"She did lose a shoe the last 300, so that kind off threw off that effort," St. Marys coach Nick Page. "But absolutely, a great race."
In the 1,600, Jutte led for the first two laps before Shawnee's Molly Stump passed her late in the third. Stump pulled away for an eight-second win, but Jutte held off Jenna Stump and Celina's Jennalee Dameron to hold onto second.
St. Marys' Syerra Greber runs the anchor leg of the 4x200 relay in front of Celina's Nevaeh Huser.
The Roughriders beat out Celina in the sprint relays, as Syerra Greber ran a strong anchor leg in the 4x200 to beat Huser and then gave St. Marys the lead in the second leg of the 4x100. Paige Veit cut into the lead before the final handoff, but Amelia Ankerman held off Huser down the stretch for the win.
Ashlie Nuss added a win in the 300 hurdles, outlasting a late surge by Dirksen for a 0.1-second win. In the field events, Reghan Puthoff earned a win in the high jump, beating Celina's Amelia Adams at 5-0.
"Reghan Puthoff in high jump did well today," Page said. "She's been kind of getting back in to compete, and she's ready to compete now, took a big step forward."
The Roughriders also won the boys 4x200 relay and Jace Schaefer took first in the high jump with a jump of 5-6.
Celina travels to Benjamin Logan Friday, while St. Marys hosts its Invitational.
