Shelby boys, girls teams victorious at home track invitational

SHELBY — Shelby left no doubt at its annual home track invitational Saturday afternoon, as both the boys and girls teams won Shelby Invitational titles.

The Whippets boys tallied a winning 173 points, while Bellevue came in second with 103 and Ontario was third with 100. Plymouth finished fourth (75), Lucas seventh (42), Mansfield Christian eighth (35) and St. Peters ninth (22).

The Whippets girls scored 187.5 points, well ahead of runner-up Bellevue (144) and third-place Ontario (118). Lucas was fourth (83), Plymouth seventh (23), St. Peters eighth (10) and Mansfield Christian ninth (7).

Here's what stood out:

Plymouth's Allen, Lucas' Grover and Shelby's Ramsey and Schwall had plenty to say

Coming off last week's performance at the Colonel Crawford Grove Keller Invitational, where she won four events (200 meters, long jump, 100 and 300 hurdles), Lucas' Shelby Grover was at it again in Shelby. She was a four-event winner once more, doing it in the long jump, 100 meters, 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles.

If you wanna shift over to the girls distance events, then Shelby's Kailyn Schwall certainly had to catch your eye. Schwall was a double-winner in the 1,600 and 800. She looked downright comfortable in the 1,600 (5:55.19), where her teammate Emma Montgomery finished second. In the 800, she was in second after the first lap but she smoothly breezed by the current leader and finished solidly on the second lap to take first in 2:35.94.

The 100 gave observers a pretty exciting matchup that featured two of the fastest sprinters in the area in Plymouth's Caiden Allen and Shelby's Issaiah Ramsey, as they did battle. Allen got the better end of the matchup, placing first (11.50) just ahead of runner-up Ramsey (11.60).

Allen also won the 100 at last Saturday's Plymouth Invitational, although he wasn't totally sold in his result.

"To be honest, it was not my best race," he said. "I didn't feel it was my best race. I just got back from vacation, so I didn't do much last week because of spring break. It wasn't my best, I'll say that."

"I knew I was going up against a really good athlete from Plymouth [Allen]," said Ramsey. "I thought I competed well today. I gave it my all and I'll go back at it next week."

While Allen might look like he's in fine form to onlookers in the early part of track season, he doesn't see it that way. There's more work to be done from his point of view.

"I definitely have a lot of work to do and improvement," said Allen, who ran the second leg on Plymouth's second-place 4x100 relay. "Hopefully, by the end of the season I'll be where I wanna be. Just take one race at a time and get better everyday."

As for Ramsey, his day wasn't finished by a long shot. The junior had the high jump on his schedule earlier in the meet, and he finished fourth. He quickly turned around and competed in the long jump, in which he looked the part, jumping over 20 feet on all four of his jumps en route to a first-place finish.

He dived into his preparation leading into the long jump.

"I did a lot of stretching because the long jump takes every part of your body, even your upper body, too," said Ramsey, who's in his first year competing in the event. "I think the key to that is your speed, so I use my speed to give me momentum. And I was happy to get a 20."

Ramsey capped off the day by winning the 200, then discussed his busy day.

"Definitely hurts on the legs and on the shins at the end of the day," he said. "I just have to push as hard as I can."

Shelby up to its usual self in distance events

The Whippets once again showed out in a track meet/invitational in what is their specialty — distance events. They didn't disappoint at their home track.

To go along with Schwall's 1,600-800 wins, Kayla Gonzales set the pavement on fire by winning the 3,200 in a meet-record time at 11:20.17. She said that was the plan all along.

"That was the goal coming into it," said Gonzales. "I definitely wanted to get right around there."

Gonzales said the familiarity of running on her home track was a bonus.

"Yeah, this track is brand new," she said. "It's really cool having these home meets, especially with the familiarity. It's kind of a nice feeling and motivating."

The Shelby girls went onto win the 4x100, 4x200, 4x800 and distance medley relays.

On the boys side, the Whippets' deep crop of distance runners did the job. In the three individual distance events, Shelby placed one-two in each.

Marshall Moore won the 800 (2:03.07), while teammate Luke Dininger came in second. In the 1,600, Moore battled with teammate Huck Finnegan all the way to the end, with Finnegan coming out with the win as Moore was easily second. In the 3,200, Indy Mayer and Luke Lesseuer finished one-two.

The Whippet boys also came through with wins in the 4x400, 4x800 and distance medley relays.

Both the boys and girls distance crews were well ahead of the pack on Saturday.

Ontario's young ones stepped up

Coming into this season, Ontario coach Mike Lyons knew he had a very young team with some underclassmen and first-year track participants. While the Warriors do have some inexperience on their side, they stepped up in a mighty way on Saturday and were a big reason why both the boys and girls finished third in the overall standings.

Sophomore Bodpegn Miller won the 400 in convincing fashion and sophomore Aiden Fox delivered a win in the 300 hurdles. Freshman Sasha Bulakovski also won the 400 and ran a strong first leg for the Warriors' winning 4x400 relay.

Lyons was impressed with his young group.

"Sasha ran an outstanding quarter and led a great relay leg into the 4x400 for us," said Lyons. "Bodpegn did really well. Our hurdlers did outstanding, both girls and boys. Our young milers and young distance kids are improving each week out and competing."

Lyons said he wants to build a balanced core among his young track athletes and veterans as the season continues.

"We've had some really good times and had some really good things take place today," Lyons said. "Really impressed by the way the younger kids continue to step up to mix with our veterans. We want to continue to work with them so we can get the right nucleus that we'll need in May and come tournament."

jsimpson@gannett.com

Twitter: @JamesSimpsonII

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Shelby boys, girls teams victorious at home track invitational