Warren's Mason Francis, left, crosses the finish line during the 4×100 meter relay during the Warren Warrior Invitational Saturday. (Photo provided by Aaron Lee)
VINCENT — Unlike Warren's Fair Weather Relay a few weeks ago, the weather was extremely favorable Saturday as the Warriors hosted nine area schools in the Warrior Invitational. As the weather began to change, times continued to drop, making it a competitive event. Warren's boys and girls teams both finished second behind familiar opponent Logan.
“Today was a meeting of 10 teams, and we finally had good weather. There was great competition today. I think a lot of people got better.” Warren boys head coach Ryan Wherry said.
He highly values the service the Chieftains provide as a team, “Logan is a tough team. We've seen them a lot this year. They've made us better and that's our mindset going forward. Not right now. Ultimately, I want to be better.”
Saturday's game was also an opportunity for the Warriors to honor their outgoing senior class, who participated in their final home invitational game.
“We have 13 seniors. Many of them have been in the program all four years, some of them are four-year lettermen. They're a special group. They put a lot of effort into tracking. They put in a lot of effort and keep getting better and better every year, and we are grateful to them.” Wherry commented on the group.
Warren's Maggie Reynolds will compete in the 200-meter dash at Saturday's Warren Warrior Invitational. (Photo provided by Aaron Lee)
For the girls, the Warriors finished second with 138 points, with Logan scoring 187 points. Three of Warren's girls placed first in their respective events. Mackenzie James McGuire won the 800 meters in 2:31.43. Abby Whited took first place in the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 48.54. The Warriors' only field event win came from Amanda Rausch, who won the gold medal in the high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 4 inches. Several of Warren's girls finished in the top three. Ashley Pate took third place in the mile. Her teammate Maddie Dougherty achieved the same result in the two mile. In the 100 hurdles, Elaina Greenwald took her third place. In addition to winning the high jump, Rauch also placed second in the pole vault with a record of 10 wins and 6 losses.
Coincidentally, all four Warriors women's relays placed second. In the 4×100, contributions were made by Katie Markley, James McGuire, Emma Groselin and Maggie Reynolds. Warren's 4×200 team consisted of Merkley, Rauch, Whited, and Reynolds. Pate, Dougherty, Sarah Petty and James McGuire won silver in the 4×800. The 4×400 team of Whited, Reynolds, Lily Turner and James McGuire gave Warren a second-place final relay finish.
Warren's boys team scored 164 points overall in the tournament, but lost to Logan in the first by just 9.5 points. The Warriors had four first-place finishes. Kyle Anthony won his first 800 meter race with a time of 2:03.95. His teammate Tyler Frye was right behind him in second place. Clay Perry, who placed second in the 110 hurdles, won gold in the 300 hurdles with a time of 40.96 seconds. Warren's other two first-place finishes were in relay competitions. In the 4×400, the relay team of Tave Early, Spencer Lehr, Hayden Wells, and Perry won in 3:30.82. Early, Lehr, Ben Bishop and Fry took first place in the 4×800 (8:29.80).
The 4×100 team of Mason Berry, Perry, Mark Himmeldark and Mason Francis also competed for the Warriors and took second place. Long-distance specialist Luke Lettenberger showed his endurance in the 1-mile and 2-mile races, finishing second in both. In addition to being part of both of Warren's winning relays, Earley placed third in the 400-meter dash.
Field events were also an area of strength for the Warriors. Wells placed third in the high jump with a record of 5 wins and 10 losses. Ben Kelly won the bronze medal in the pole vault by jumping 10 feet. Katya Armstrong had a great day in the ring. In the shot put, where improvement is usually measured in inches rather than feet, Armstrong improved by a whopping 5 feet, 1 inch from his seeded distance. He finished second and achieved the same result in the discus. Fellow thrower Landin Summers placed third in the shot put.
Hayden Wells of Warren will compete in the high jump at Saturday's Warren Warrior Invitational. (Photo provided by Aaron Lee)
Warren looks like he will continue to progress as athletes get healthier. “We're getting healthy and getting back to where we were. We're missing some on the girls side today, but we had some girls step up. We're on target. We continue to improve.”
The Warriors will play Logan on Tuesday, the fourth meeting between the two teams this season. Warren plans to bring a delegation to both the Belpre quad this Thursday and the April 26 invitational. Conference play is already around the corner, with the Warriors scheduled to compete in the Twin State League Championship on April 23rd in Marietta.
Contact Aaron Lee at alee@newsandsentinel.com
Warren University's Elaina Greenwald will compete in the 100-meter hurdles at Saturday's Warren Warrior Invitational. (Photo provided by Aaron Lee)
