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Fort Recovery's Anna Roessner narrowly beats Coldwater's Izzy Zahn in the 100 dash.
COLDWATER - Mercer County's track teams were on a tear at the Knights of Columbus Invitational at Cavalier Stadium on Thursday.
Between junior high and high school, 20 meet records were broken on the second day alone.
"There's a lot of talent in this county," Celina coach Eric Wagner said.
Marion Local accounted for five of those new records, with nine athletes contributing, and pulled out the varsity boys title 156-154 1/2 over Celina, while the Bulldog girls team prevailed 118-109 over Coldwater despite not winning an event on day two.
"They shocked us with how well they performed," Marion coach Kyle Grabowski said. "We knew there were great times in us, we knew that we had the opportunity to put up special times this year. But to do it not even at conference yet - wow. We are just so impressed with how our kids competed."
Marion Local's Aiden Grieshop runs the final leg of the 4x200, where the Flyers broke meet and school records.
Leading by five points coming into the day, the Flyers got six wins and enough points down the board to hold on for the win.
Jack Knapke set a new meet record with a throw of 166 feet, 11 inches in the discus for the first win of the day. After Justin Knouff narrowly missed a win against Coldwater's Jack Riethman in the 100-meter dash, Victor Hoelscher took first in the 200 and Wesley Schoen reset a 29-year-old meet record with a time of 50.43 in the 400.
The Flyers also broke meet and school records in the 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400.
The team title came down to the 4x400, with Celina leading by half a point going in. The two teams were in a dead heat at the first handoff, but Hoelscher came through with a big surge on the backstretch, and Andrew Pohlman helped open up the lead before Schoen finished it off, with the Bulldogs 3 1/2 seconds back for second.
Both teams came in ahead of the meet record, which belonged to Celina and had stood since 1993.
"Celina is an outstanding team," Grabowski said. "I'm looking at those times, those performances - they scored in every event, to my knowledge, and you look at them, it's like, 'Okay, it makes sense why they had a good football team.' There are some stud athletes in Celina's building."
Grabowski also noted Landon Arling, who scored eight points across three events.
"He doesn't always win, but he always scores points," Grabowski said. "When we win by a point and a half tonight, that sort of stands out."
On the other side of the bracket, Celina and Coldwater's girls went back and forth most of the meet. Celina's only win came Tuesday in the 4x800, but it scored in every event.
Allana Carroll finished second in the 800 and Bria Pearson was fifth. In the 3,200, Brinley Korte and Jennalee Dameron finished 2-3 behind Parkway's Taylor Muhlenkamp.
Korte took the lead from Fort Recovery's Natalie Brunswick on the third lap and held it almost all the way, but Muhlenkamp made a late push and took the lead on the final lap.
Carroll also finished third in the 400, Korte and Dameron both scored in the 1,600 and the Bulldogs placed two in the 100, pole vault and shot put. Ellie Hitchcock was second behind Marion's Grace Moeller in the 100 hurdles.
The 4x100 relay took second, finishing .08 seconds behind Fort Recovery with both breaking the meet record.
"We've got a lot of puppies yet that are still learning how to compete, but they're competing well," Wagner said. "Our relays did really well. Our 4x800 relay won on Tuesday, and our sprint relays battled really hard. Just all around good performances from everybody."
Fort Recovery's Mara Pearson celebrates after crossing the finish line .08 seconds ahead of Celina's Ellie Hitchcock in the 4x100-meter relay at the Knights of Columbus Mercer County Invitational at Cavalier Stadium on Thursday.
Fort Recovery's 4x100 reset its best time as well, even with a shuffled lineup. Madison Heitkamp stepped in to replace Anna Roessner, who was running the 400 immediately after.
Mara Pearson held off Hitchcock in the final meters to secure the win.
"We weren't running it with these kids at this time last year," Fort Recovery coach Christy Diller said. "They've dropped a whole second. They're right around 51, and we didn't run Anna. We put her back on that, and that's another second at least."
Roessner made sure switching up the relay paid off. She outdueled Coldwater's Izzy Zahn in the 100, running a 12.32 for a .05-second victory and breaking the meet record for the second time this week. She came back in the 400 and blitzed the field, running a 58.21 for a new meet record and a 2 1/2 second win.
That also broke the Fort Recovery school record, giving Roessner the records in the 100, 200 and 400.
"She should be a tired kiddo tomorrow," Diller said with a laugh.
Zahn beat Roessner and Pearson in the 200 dash and broke the meet record with a 24.36. That also gave her a new lifetime best, surpassing her state-winning 24.39.
Ava Schmitmeyer added a win in the pole vault, and the 4x400 relay team ran a blistering 4:04.08, breaking the meet record set by the Cavaliers two years ago by almost six seconds.
Ava Ranly gave the Marion girls a win in high jump and Georgia Fleck won shot put. Moeller also beat Fort Recovery's Kiana Matsuda and St. Henry's Karlee Buschur, running 47.19 in the 300 hurdles.
"Those three should be able to push each other at least to regional finals," Grabowski said. "It might get dicey there. But that's great competition, and the times will drop eventually. It's just a matter of pressing on, and she's been so confident in both hurdle races this year."
St. Henry's Rileigh Baumer won the 800 by more than nine seconds.
St. Henry's Rileigh Baumer took first in the 800, running 2:22.29 to beat Carroll by more than nine seconds. The Redskin girls also won the 4x200.
Celina's Jake Knapke won the 800 and Jon Lutz won the 110 hurdles. Lutz came in second to teammate Luke Lazarich in the 300 hurdles, as Lazarich broke the meet record with a 39.38.
Coldwater's Gavin Zibrida won long jump with a mark of 20-10.
Fort Recovery's Natalie Brunswick won the 1,600, coming up two seconds short of the school record. Trevor Heitkamp swept the distance races, with large margins in each - 13 seconds in the 1,600 and 18 in the 3,200.
"He ran a lifetime best in the mile tonight, second-best in the two-mile," Diller said, "and he did it mostly on his own."
In junior high, Celina's Allison Hemmelgarn beat Moeller's old record in the 100 hurdles, Madeline Rammel broke the 100 record and Brenna Korte set a new mark in the 400. Coldwater broke records in the girls 4x100 and boys 4x200, Johnny Pohlman set a new long jump record and Collin Westgerdes broke the discus mark.
St. Henry's Karlee Baumer (200 hurdles) and the boys 4x400 team also set new records.
Coldwater swept the junior high team standings, with the girls winning 164 1/2-152 over Celina and the boys prevailing 156-121 over Marion.
