L-B boys first at own invitational

L-B INVITEFINDLAY – There was no down-to-the-wire finish in the final scoring, but there were plenty of them on the track when 11 schools gathered for the Liberty-Benton Invitational on Saturday.Liberty-Benton defended its home turf, capturing the boys meet championship by a 135.5 to 101 margin over Columbus Grove. Arlington (78.5) edged Pandora-Gilboa (74) and Oak Harbor (71.5) for third, with Bluffton (58), Old Fort (48), Carey (43,5), McComb (26) and Hardin Northern (24) rounding out the field.Columbus Grove took home the girls title, outscoring Bluffton 150.5 to 105.5 on a crisp May day. Oak Harbor was third (100.5), followed by Liberty-Benton (82), Arlington (71.5), Old Fort (39), Carey (34.5), McComb (32.5), Arcadia (23), Pandora-Gilboa (9) and Hardin Northern (8)The boys 100-meter dash was perfect example of the competitive closeness of many of the events. Carey's Tripp Phoenix won the event with a time of 11.01 seconds, with Columbus Grove's Trevon Baxter (11.12), Liberty-Benton's Kason Griffin and Hardin Northern's Riley Newton shoe-horned into the second, third and fourth spots.It was a similar situation in the 200, where a split second separated Baxter (22.39) and L-B's Griffin (22.46) and Bradan Bell (22.60).Hair-splitting finishes were found in the field events as well. In the boys long jump, only an inch-and-a-half separated the top three jumpers: Baxter (21-7½), Bluffton's Tayte Giesige (21-6¾) and McComb's Carter Frater (21-6).Liberty-Benton broke the tape in two of the four relays, with Bell and Jonas Frederick teaming with Asher Norman and CJ Barbara in the 400 (44.35) and joining Griffin and Lane Fannin on the 800 (1:31.02). L-B's Jackson Hochstettler won the 800 (1:56.51) and the Eagles scored well in the field events, with Barbara winning the discus (153-7) and Will Granger placing first (50-5) and Wyatt Myers second (48-7) in the shot.After his strong showing in the 100, Newton went on to win the 400 (49.70). Columbus Grove swept the distance events with Caiden Squillante winning the 1,600 (4:39.04) and Holden Hartzog the 3,200 (10:07.05). Frater was second in the 110 hurdles (14.72), and Pandora-Gilboa's Camden Verhoff was second in the 300s (40.93).Arlington's Lucas McILroy, Eli Hurt, Trevor Anderson and Cuyler Rausch won the 1,600 relay (3:30.09), and P-G's Adam Buell, Jack Buell, Gavino Barrara and Landen Moore were first in the 3,200 relay (8:20.27). The Rockets added 1-2 points in the pole vault with Ben Burkholder (13-0) finishing first and Kenner Forney second (12-6).Arlington high jumper Calvin Willow achieved a milestone in the meet. Willow cleared 6-7 to win the high jump, marking the fourth time in his prep career he has won the event at the L-B meet.Willow will be able to win a fourth straight BVC high jump championship as well when the league meet is held May 15 in Ada.The girls meet had its share of photo finishes as well, especially in the 200 where Arlington's Alexis Grieser (25.53) beat Oak Harbor's Olivia Cherry (25.56) by .03 of a second. Grieser also won the 100 (12.64) with Callie Hartman (13.05) giving the Red Devils a 1-2 finish in that event.Grieser, Hartman and Paige Clevenger also teamed up on two runner-up relays – with Olivia Pepple in the 400 (50.11) and Izzy Kretz in the 800 (1:46.63).Columbus Grove swept the long distance events with Liv Mayberry winning the 1,600 (5:38.94) and Sarah Kamphaus placing first in the 3,200 (12:03.80) and second (5:51.85) to Mayberry in the 1,600.Grove's Nicole Nesby added a first in the shot put (39-4).Bluffton's Maelee Miller was a double meet champion, winning the 400-meter run (59.61) and 100 hurdles (15.08). Nora Matthews was first in the 800 (2:21.54), and Carey's Elyse Holsinger captured the 300 hurdles (46.16).McComb's Makenah Hepperly doubled up in the field events, winning both the high jump (5-0) and long jump (16-7½). Arcadia's Shia Watkins was first in the discus (124-6) and second in the shot (37-4½). Liberty-Benton's Josie Hochstettler won the pole vault with a leap of 10-6. TIGER INV.NORTH BALTIMORE – Elmwood won both titles and Leipsic and North Baltimore swapped runner-up trophies at the North Baltimore Tiger Track Invitational.Elmwood scored 197.5 points in taking the girls title, with North Baltimore second (105.5) and Leipsic third (73) in the 10-school meet. In the boys competition, Elmwood edged Leipsic 167-164 for first, North Baltimore was third (101) and Vanlue finished seventh (43.5).Heavenlei Newson was a triple winner for Elmwood's girls team, placing first in the 200-meter dash (27.38), running a time of 48.44 to lead a 1-2 finish with teammate Grace Morgart (55.48) in the 300 hurdles, and joining Mogart, Callie Luken and Remy Donaldson on the winning 1,600 relay (4:30.16).Luken won the 400 (1:01.05), with Karlee Clum (33-0) and Keri Ervin (31-1) placing 1-2 in the shot.North Baltimore's Ady Reynolds doubled up in individual events by winning the 1,600 (5:42.42) and 3.200 (12:34.63). She also anchored the winning 3,200 relay team (10:43.40) that included Meghan Helbling, Maddie Stufft and Hannah Hagemyer. Atlee Rowlinson also doubled up for North Baltimore, winning the high jump (4-10) and the triple jump (29-1), ahead of teammate Liv Amburgey (27-11).Leipsic got field events wins from Sydney Apple in the discos (116-4) and Kylee Schroeder in the pole vault (8-0).Elmwood won two of the boys relay events, with Luke Carr, Brayden Mendoza, Alex Petrescu and Aaron Little first in the 800 (1:41.10) and Henry Good, Dylan Amentrout, Gavin Minich and Evan Strausbaugh taking the 3,200 (9:05.46). Armentrout also won the 1,600 (4:52.00), Good (10:07.03) and Gavin Reinahrt (10:55.48) went 1-2 in the 3,200 and Little (11-6) and JT Dyar (8-0) finished 1-2 in the pole vault.Marquis Williams had a big meet for Leipsic, winning the 200 (23.41) and 400 (53.19) and finishing second (11.52) to teammate Trevor Stuber (11.49) in the 100.Leipsic's Nolyn Lammers doubled up in the shot (50-3¼) and discus (146-3), Kash Walther won the triple jump (39-8¾) and Sean Reynolds, Carson Schroeder, Soto Ernsto and Angel Guerrero took first in the 1,600 relay (3:6.37).North Baltimore had two field events first, with Rhys Williams taking the high jump (6-0) and Brody Walter the long jump (19-10).