Staff report
ANNA — The Anna boys track team is the champion of their own invitational — finally.
Until Saturday, the Anna boys had never won the Anna Invitational, which has been held every year since the late 1990s. And head coach Dean Stewart wasn’t expecting to win it Saturday, even though the Rockets did so by a large margin.
“I didn’t really expect us to win because Wapak decided to come after Troy moved their invitational,” said Stewart. “And they have a really good team. But we had a lot of freshmen step up for us.”
The Rockets started out in the right way, with a win in the 3200 relay from the team of Lucas Huber, Bart Bixler, Joel Gaier and Patrick Toller, beating out Wapak by less than two seconds.
Before the day was over, Huber would win two more events, the 1600 and 3200, and Gaier was first in the 800, giving the Rockets a clean sweep of the distance events.
There were three more first-place finishes, too.
Dylan Berner won the high jump by clearing 6 feet, 3 inches.
Logan Konst soared 14 feet to win the pole vault, and the Anna 1600 relay team was first.
The gave the Rockets 70 points right there, and they finished with 142.5 to outdistance Wapakoneta’s 106. It broke quite a streak — Minster’s boys had finished first the past nine years in a row, with Anna runner-up in the last five.
Botkins, which finished seventh with 53 points, got 38 of them from two athletes. Micah Smock won both the 100 and 300 hurdles. And teammate Josh Miller won the discus and was second in the shot put.
Miller’s distance in the shot was 56-0.25, and that broke the meet record of 53-9. But the new record belongs to Ryan Demaline of Liberty Center, who beat out Miller with a heave of 58-8.75.
Finally, Fairlawn senior Nathan Lessing was a two-event champion, winning the 200 dash and also the long jump, the latter with a leap of 20 feet even.
• The Minster girls were clearly the class of the field, running up 146 points to outpoint Anna with 90 in second place.
Minster also started out well by winning the 3200 relay, and they later added a win in the 1600 relay.
In addition, Emma Watcke won the 1600, Jordyn Heitbrink was first in the high jump, and Madeline Magoto set a new meet record in winning the 800 in 2:22.66.
Anna had three first-places, led by the the 800 relay team of Kennedey Glover, Rachel Shoemaker, Krista Gehret and Riley Edwards, who combined for a 1:49.32, which is a new meet record.
Shoemaker also won the 100 dash, and the 400 relay team won in 52.04.
Lehman’s Alanna O’Leary was a two-event winner, taking the 200 and 400 dashes. She was also second in the 100 for 28 of her team’s 31 points.
Botkins had two firsts, both from Grace Homan, who won the shot put and discus. And teammate Adriana Jutte won the 300 hurdles and was second in the 100 hurdles by less than a half-second.
Madison Huelskamp went 16 feet, 2.5 inches to join Lessing and give Fairlawn a sweep of the long jump.
Anna Invitational
BOYS
Final team standings — 1. Anna 142.5, 2. Wapakoneta 106, 3. (tie) Minster, Liberty Center 65, 5. Russia 62, 6. Fairlawn 60, 7. Botkins 53, 8. Houston 50, 9. New Bremen 29.5, 10, West Liberty-Salem 23, 11. Lehman 7, 12. New Knoxville 2.
Event winners
3200 relay — Anna 8:33.63 (Lucas Huber, Bart Bixler, Joel Gaier, Patrick Toller).
100 hurdles — Micah Smock, Botkins, 16.05.
100 dash — Riley Worthen, Wapakoneta, 11.5.
800 relay — Liberty Center 1:37.97.
1600 run — Lucas Huber, Anna, 4:45.72.
400 relay — Wapakoneta 46.13.
400 dash — Riley Worthen, Wapakoneta, 53.53.
300 hurdles — Micah Smock, Botkins, 42.5.
800 run — Joel Gaier, Anna, 2:03.65.
200 dash — Nathan Lessing, Fairlawn, 23.88.
3200 run — Lucas Huber, Anna, 10:22.52.
1600 relay — Anna 3:38.65.
Discus — Josh Miller, Botkins, 148-6.
High jump — Dylan Berner, Anna, 6-3.
Long jump — Nathan Lessing, Fairlawn, 20-0.
Shot put — Ryan Demaline, Liberty Center, 58-8.75 (new meet record)
Pole vault — Logan Konst, Anna, 14-0.
GIRLS
Final team standings — 1. Minster 146, 2. Anna 90, 3. Wapakoneta 81.5, 4. New Bremen 72.5, 5. West Liberty-Salem 67, 6. Russia 53, 7. Botkins 46, 8. Lehman 31, 9. Houston 27, 10. Liberty Center 22, 11. Fairlawn 19, 12.New Knoxville 7.
3200 relay — Minster 9:55.85.
100 hurdles — Megan Smith, Wapakoneta, 16:58.
100 dash — Rachel Shoemaker, Anna, 13.22.
800 relay — Anna 1:49.32 (new meet record).
1600 run – Emma Watcke, Minster, 5:27.84.
400 relay — Anna 52.04.
400 dash — Alanna O’Leary, Lehman, 1:01.59.
300 hurdles — Adriana Jutte, Botkins, 48.41.
800 run — Madeline Magoto, Minster, 2:22.66 (new meet record).
200 dash — Alanna O’Leary, Lehman, 26.86.
3200 run — Allie Zofkie, Wapak, 11:45.12.
1600 relay — Minster 4:14.37.
Discus — Grace Homan, Botkins, 111-6.
High jump — Jordyn Heitbrink, Minster, 5-0.
Long jump — Madison Huelskamp, Fairlawn, 16-2.5.
Shot put — Grace Homan, Botkins, 40-11.
Pole vault — Sidney Sutton, Wapak, 11-0.
