By Fred Kroner
Five St. Joseph-Ogden athletes were individual winners on Friday (May 21) in the Spartan Classic boys’ track and field invitational.
The Spartans’ leaders included double-winner Hayden Knott, who swept to victory in the shot put (53 feet, 2 inches) and the discus (167 feet, 3 inches).
Knott has won both events in all seven meets in which he has competed thus far during the outdoor season.
Other SJ-O winners were Carson Maroon (3,200 meters in 10 minutes, 43.46 seconds), Charlie Mabry (1,600 meters in 4:42.80), Brandon Mattsey (800 meters in 2:05.65) and Brady Buss (200 meters, 23.26 seconds).
Monticello was the winner of the five-team meet with 116 points. Second-place SJ-O had 89 points. Monticello was third with 62 ½ points.
SJ-O excelled in the weight events. The school had six of the top nine placers in the discus. Following Knott were Brock Trimble (second in 140-4), Evan Schmitz (third in 113-4), Hunter Ketchum (fourth in 110-2), Max Shonkwiler (seventh in 107-2) and Mitchell Wright (ninth in 98-7).
In the shot put, the Spartans ended with three of the top seven finishers. Shonkwiler was sixth (39-1) and Schmitz was seventh (37-4).
The distance crew also represented itself well.
Teammates trailing Mabry in the 1,600 meters were Elijah Mock (third in 4:45.71), Logan Wolfersberger (fourth in 4:51.27), Luke Stegall (sixth in 4:56.61) and Aden Armstrong (ninth in 5:01.31).
Lukas Hutcherson was among the leaders in both hurdles’ races. He was sixth in the 110-meter event (21.33 seconds) and seventh in the 300 hurdles (49.07 seconds). Aidan McCorkle took fourth for SJ-O in the 300 hurdles (46.02 seconds).
Buss ended third in the 100 meters (11.17 seconds). Tyler Burch was fifth in the same race (11.42 seconds) and Justice Wertz was 10th (12.15 seconds).
In the 200 meters, Jonathan Poulter placed third (23.79 seconds).
Three Spartans finished together in the 400 meters. Holden Jones was sixth (1:01.20), Drew Thurman was seventh (1:01.44) and Brody Weaver was eighth (1:02.21).
Wilson joined Mattsey as medalists in the 800 meters. Wilson was fourth in 2:12.91.
Other field event placers for SJ-O were Wertz (fifth in the pole vault, 7 feet, 9 inches), Trimble (sixth in the triple jump, 35 feet, 6 inches) and McCorkle (eighth in the high jump, 5 feet, 3 inches).
SJ-O had two relay entries end among the top five in both the 400- and 800-meter races.
Buss, McCorkle, Burch and Poulter ran second in the 400-meter relay (44.32 seconds) while another set of teammates (Thurman, Trimble, Wertz and Weaver) were fifth (48.76 seconds).
The Spartans’ top placing 1,600 relay was their unit of Maroon, Wilson, Mattsey and Burch in 3:40.77. They ran third.
Placing fourth in the 1,600 relay was the SJ-O foursome of Ethan Vanliew, Braden Clampitt, Ethan Blackburn and Isiah Mock (3:52.40).
SJ-O’s other points came from a third-place finish in the 3,200-meter relay, which featured Armstrong, Mock, Jones and Blackburn. Their combined time was 9:23.25.
SJ-O returns to action on Tuesday (June 1) in the Illini Prairie Conference meet at Bloomington Central Catholic.
