By FRED KRONER
St. Joseph-Ogden dominated the weight events on Friday (May 14) in the nine-school Unity boys’ track and field invitational.
The Spartans swept the top two spots in the varsity shot put, the junior varsity shot put and also in the discus.
Senior Hayden Knott continued his season-long unbeaten streak, covering six meets, in the shot put (53 feet, 5 inches) and the discus (162 feet, 4 inches), beating teammates in each. The shot runner-up was Max Shonkwiler (42 feet, 3 inches) and placing second in the discus was Brock Trimble (130 feet, 9 inches).
In the JV shot put, SJ-O’s Hunter Ketchum was first (37 feet, 7 inches), followed closely by teammate Evan Schmitz (37 feet, 5 inches).
SJ-O’s Brandon Mattsey took top honors in the 3,200 meters (9 minutes, 58.25 seconds) and anchored the winning 800-meter relay.
Joining Mattsey on the relay were Brady Buss, Jonathan Poulter and Tyler Burch. Their winning team was 1:34.36.
The Spartans had back-to-back placers in the sprint races.
In the 100 meters, Buss was third (11.32 seconds) and Poulter was fourth (11.47 seconds).
In the 200 meters, Buss was second (22.74 seconds) and Burch was third (23.19 seconds).
SJ-O had seven other top 10 finishers in individual events: Carson Maroon (third in 1,600 meters, 4:46.96); Spencer Wilson (fifth in 800 meters, 2:10.60); Lukas Hutcherson (sixth in 300 hurdles, 50.86); Trimble (sixth in triple jump, 32-7); Justice Wertz (sixth in pole vault, 7-5); Isiah Mock (ninth in 800 meters, 2:15.29) and Aden Armstrong (ninth in 1,600 meters, 5:12.27).
The Spartans placed among the top three in a pair of varsity relays and took the runner-up position in two JV relays.
The 3,200-meter varsity relay was second in 8:45.44. Relay runners were Hutcherson, Logan Wolfersberger, Mock and Charlie Mabry.
The 1,600-meter varsity relay, featuring Mock, Mattsey, Mabry and Wolfersberger ended in third place. Their collective time was 3:47.29.
The high-placing JV relays included the same runners, but in a different order.
In the JV 400-meter relay, Brody Weaver, Trimble, Wertz and Drew Thurman took the second spot in 47.33 seconds.
In the JV 800-meter relay, the order was Thurman, Trimble, Wertz and Weaver. Their time was 1:42.98.
Monticello captured varsity team honors in the nine-school meet. The Sages totaled 118 points. Runner-up SJ-O had 105 points. In third place was Paxton-Buckley-Loda with 80 points.
In the three JV events, the Spartans captured first place with 34 points. Runner-up Tolono Unity had 14 points and third-place Rantoul tallied 11 points.
SJ-O will return to action on Friday (May 21) in the Spartan Classic.
