Prom, weather and West Holmes track
On Saturday, April 26 at the Triway Invitational, while many student-athletes from West Holmes were excused to prepare for the annual prom, others picked up the slack for Rich Patterson's crew.
In the 16-team field in the girls' portion of the race, the Lady Knights were able to parlay enough of their individual efforts into a third place finish, one which could have undoubtedly evolved into victory had they had their full complement of weapons.
Orrville captured the title in the event, scoring 104 points. In second was the Lady Knights, whose 97 points was right on the heels of the champion Red Riders. Third place went to Woodridge, which scored 84.6 points.
There were a good number of impressive individual performances for West Holmes. Paiten Strother sailed to victory in the 100 in 13.50, and placed second in the long jump, while Laina Snyder took first place in the shot put and fourth in the discus. Carly Woodruff and Ciera rose went two and three in the 100 meter hurdles.
Makena Mulhaul gobbled up a second-place finish in the high jump, Taylor Yerian matched that effort in the 300 meter hurdles and Emily Molnar finished fourth in the 1600.
It was plenty of great news in the relay events.
West Holmes' 4x200 team of Woodruff, Strother, Rose and Hannah Clark took first, while the 4x800 team of Molnar, Michelle Hostetler, Alexis Kandel and Clark also pulled off that feat.
The 4x100 team of Woodruff, Mulhaul, Yerian and Strother managed a second-place finish.
The West Holmes boys came in ninth in the 16 team field, led by several high places.
Third place slots went to Luke Ogi in the 100, Sam Boyd in the 1600, with fourth place spots being earned by Nick Roush in the pole vault and Josh Goudy in the discus. Six-place finishes were taken by Brady Arnold in the long jump and Connor Roach in the high jump.
Arnold and Ogi joined Matt Casey and Josh Carsner to finish fifth in the 4x100 relay race, with that same group finishing sixth in the 4x200.
“We're at the point in the season, where we've got a lot of events together, and we are getting some of the other kids some experience while resting others,” said West Holmes coach Rich Patterson.
Three nights later the Knights took on Orrville at a dual meet at home, and both teams had several key athletes missing, but still put forth a very entertaining effort on a rainy night.
The girls pulled off a 71.5-55.5 victory over the Red Riders.
Rose and Woodruff went one-two in the 100 hurdles, and in the 300 hurdles, Taylor Yerian turned in a PR, zipping around in 47.29, a time which teeters on the verge of placing on the podium at State.
Strother and Smith went one-two in the 100 in a photo finish, while Clark took home top honors in the 400. Snyder came out on top again in the shot put, Emily Molnar won the 1600, Alexis Kandel continued her dominant year in the 800 by crushing the field, and Snyder also took home the discus gold. In the relay events, the Lady Knights won each of the four relays.
On the guys side, Orrville claimed an 84-43 win over the Knights.
The Knights 4x800 relay team earned a victory in a big way, cruising home in 9:10, 21 seconds ahead of Orrville. Matt Chaney and Colt Tennant took second and third in the 110 hurdles, Roach finished second in the high jump, Ogi ripped his way to victory in the 100, Darrin Yerian ran to victory in the 3200, and came out on top in the 1600 as well, where the Knights completed a sweep with Boyd and J.R. Yoder placing second and third. Matt Gardner earned second place in the 800, Ben Barbey took second in the discus.