Switz Co. hosts track invitational

Thursday weather limited most spring sports teams in the area but Switzerland County was still able to go well into the night and host its annual Vevay Media Invitational.

The seven-team event featured Jac-Cen-Del, Milan and South Ripley. Switzerland County swept both invitational titles, scoring 192 points to win the girls meet and 155 points in the boys meet.

Girls standings included Southwestern (Hanover) in second place with 80 points and South Ripley was a narrow third place finisher at 73 points. Rising Sun and Milan rounded out the top five with 56 points and 50 points respectively and finally in the field were New Washington with 33 points and Jac-Cen-Del at six points.

South Ripley’s Alexa Yeomans set a new meet record and now has the sixth-fastest time in the state this spring after winning the 100 hurdles in a record-breaking time of 14.91 seconds. Yeomans was also second in the 100 dash at 13.22 seconds and was a part of the runner-up 400 relay team that included Adysen Armand, Emily Parks and Hailey Ortiz in a time of 56.08 seconds.

Parks, Jocelyn Goddard, Ortiz and Kaylie Effing ran third in the 1600 relay at 4:59.17. Effing branched off for third in the 300 hurdles in 54.26 seconds and Kylie Demaree threw a distance of 86 feet and four inches to place third in the discus.

Kayla Roell was the only other girls winner from the coverage area. The Milan junior won the 400 dash in 1:03.83. She was also featured on the third place team of Elly Potts, Cristina Martinez and Hannah Cooney that ran the 3200 relay in 12:29.45. Aryanna Poullard finished third for the Lady Indians in the 200 dash at 28.44 seconds.
Jac-Cen-Del’s top finisher was Sophia Volz. She was fifth in the shot put at 26 feet and 10 inches and fifth in the discus at 85 feet and two inches.

Milan scored 98 points and placed third in the boys invitational and the two other coverage area schools rounded out the top five. South Ripley was fourth with 76 points and Jac-Cen-Del finished fifth with 28 points. Rising Sun and New Washington followed with 25 points and 17 points respectively.

The Indians broke two meet records and that included junior Gabe Riehle breaking his brother Ben’s previous mark in the 400 dash. Riehle won the race and posted a new record-time of 49.84 seconds. Also setting a record was Quinten Fischer in the 100 dash with a time of 11.59 seconds.

Riehle was a double-event winner, taking top honors in the 200 dash in 23 seconds. Fischer had two individual third place spots in the 200 dash at 24.31 seconds and long jump at 18 feet and one inch before running third with Kayden McClellan, Gavin Trenkamp and Dylan Pindell to place third in the 400 relay at 49.10 seconds. The 1600 relay team of Riehle, Pindell, Lucas Cooney and Tyler Myers finished in 3:44.91.

Two individual wins and a relay win allowed for Mason Bascom to lead the way for South Ripley. He swept the 1600 and 3200 runs in times of 4:53.37 and 10:49.74 respectively and then joined up with Luke Bradley, Jordan Davis and Blaine Ward to win the 3200 relay in 8:54.76.

The Raider 1600 relay team of Brady Begley, Drew Volz, Davis and Ward were runner-up in a time of 3:43.18 and Ward branched off for second in the 800 run at 2:13.26. Bradley ran the 800 run in 2:13.40 and placed third.

Jac-Cen-Del had two top three finishers. Ayden Lewis was second in the high jump with a distance of five feet and six inches. Berkley Williams threw 39 feet and 10 inches, placing third in the shot put.

South Ripley will host a five-team event tonight that also includes Jac-Cen-Del and Milan.