Princeton, Maysville Girls Established As GRC Frontrunners

Rhoades Has A Day In Albany; Feiden, Turner Win Events

If the 2022 Travis Girratono Memorial Relays were any indication, the Princeton High School girls track and field team is in for a fight when it comes to defending their Grand River Conference championship from last season.
Monday in Albany, Princeton piled up 75 team points in a meet that featured 13 of the GRC’s 16 member schools. The 75 points weren’t quite enough to win the meet, however, as Maysville collected 79 team points, narrowly bumping the Tigers out of the top spot in the standings.
“Maysville has a fantastic team and Bella Redman had a big day for them,” Princeton head coach Nathan Powell said. “We’re both built very similar and there are several events that could go either way on a given day. That said, we left a lot of points on the track last night that I know our girls will learn from. The conference meet next month should be a good one.”
Still, it’s early in the season. Some of Princeton’s top athletes are still running just three events. The conference meet, scheduled for May 3 in Bethany, is still a month away. Non-conference schools like East Buchanan, Tarkio and Jefferson also picked up a lot of points, keeping the meet from being a true preview for the GRC meet.
Princeton earned three gold medals on the day, once again doing so in all phases of the meet. Lauren Krohn was first in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:02.59 and Kinslee Stokely was first in the pole vault, setting another new personal record with a mark of 3.12 meters. In addition to the first place finishes in an open track event and a field event, the Tigers’ 4×200-meter relay team of Faith Siemer, Grace Kelly, Addy Henke and Krohn won gold with a time of 1:53.46.
Princeton placed all four of its relay teams. The 4×100 team of Danielle Bears, Kelly, Henke and Carsey Brown was third with a time of 53.69 and the 4×400 team of Gracie Thogmartin, Stokely, Kelly and Bears was also third, doing so with a time of 4:52.6. The 4×800 team of Gracie Allnutt, Makenzie Dunkin, Klaire Buckler and Emma Walkup finished eighth with a time of 13:15.34.
Krohn competed in just three events on the day. Her third event saw her add a third-place finish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 28.05.
Megan Spencer placed twice in throwing events. She was second in the javelin with a mark of 35.84 meters and finished fifth in the discus with a throw of 29.64 meters. The Tigers double-placed in the discus with Kyla Coffman finishing two spots behind Spencer in seventh with a throw of 28.59 meters.
Other placewinners for the Princeton girls included Bears, fifth in the pole vault with a mark of 2.13 meters and fifth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.82; Kelly, sixth in the triple jump with a mark of 8.97 meters; and Thogmartin, eighth in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 55.83 and eighth in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 19.71.
Behind Maysville and Princeton, Tarkio placed third with 74 points while South Harrison and East Buchanan rounded out the top five with 63 and 61 points respectively. There were 25 schools competing at the meet.
The Princeton boys collected 53 points and placed sixth overall despite being somewhat short-handed with a baseball game set for the same day.
Worth County won the boys meet with 88.5 team points, besting runner-up East Buchanan’s total of 84 points. Milan came home third with 63.5 points and Stanberry and King City rounded out the top five right ahead of Princeton with 57 and 54 points respectively.
Princeton got the majority of its points from Andrew Rhoades, who had a stellar day, earning three gold medals and 33 points on his own. Rhoades was first in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.51 and first in the 400 with a time of 52.37. He would place first in the javelin as well with a throw of 42.83 meters and wound up sixth in the long jump with a leap of 5.51 meters.
“Andrew is a fantastic athlete,” Powell said. “He’s just one of those kids who can do anything we ask of him. He has really established himself in the 200, 400 and javelin so far this season and we haven’t put a full four-event load on him yet. The job for us as coaches is to keep the instinct to load him up at bay and get him to the big meets in May happy and healthy.”
Behind Rhoades, Luke Kelly delivered a personal best jump of 12.08 meters to place fourth in the triple jump and Tristan Girdner was just a few spots behind Rhoades in the javelin, placing fifth with a throw of 41.6 meters.
Other placewinners for the Princeton boys included Jaden Finney, sixth in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 46.57 and seventh in the high jump with a mark of 1.7 meters; Logan Smith, sixth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 57.35; the 4×800-meter relay team of Finney, Kenny Wright, Smith and Nicholas Rubio, seventh with a time of 9:35.97; and the 4×100-meter relay team of Ethan Rhoades, Gabe Vargas, Girdner and Mason Robinson, eighth with a time of 52.11.
Princeton’s track and field teams are set to be back at it today (Friday), traveling to the Joe Shy Relays in Chillicothe. That event is set to begin at 2 o’clock.
GALLATIN
Ashley Feiden won the 800-meter run at the Girratono Relays, pacing a Gallatin effort that saw the Bulldogs place ninth in the 24-school field with 30 team points. Feiden won the event with a time of 2:36.8.
Feiden joined Alex Endicott, AnnaBelle Ball and Elle Copple in the 4×800-meter relay. That team finished runner-up, taking second with a time of 10:47.33.
Other placewinners for the Gallatin girls included Makayla Rainey, who was fourth in the pole vault with a mark of 2.29 meters and Ball, who was fifth in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 53.63 and sixth in the high jump with a leap of 1.45 meters.
Gallatin’s boys collected nine points, all of which came from thrower Carson Lang. He was third in the discus with a throw of 38.54 meters and was sixth in the shot put with a mark of 11.9 meters.
Gallatin’s track and field teams are back in action today (Friday), competing in the Stanberry Invitational. Field events get underway at 3:30 p.m.
TRI-COUNTY
The Tri-County girls had a gold medalist in Carly Turner, who won the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 18.08. Turner was also third in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 51.96. The two medals accounted for 16 of Tri-County’s 26 points, a total that placed the Mustangs 11th in the team standings.
Behind Turner, Tori Dunks was fourth in the 3,200-meter run with a time of 14:00.87. The Mustangs’ 4×400-meter relay team of Lucy Turner, Emily Brewer, Anissa Williams and Lexi Blakey-Wright was sixth with a time of 5:08.89 and the 4×800-meter relay team of Chloe Abledinger, Jordan Marrs, Brewer and Zoie Williams was seventh with a time of 13:04.68.
The Tri-County boys were 14th on their side, collecting 19 points. Derrick Curtis had a fourth-place finish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.2 and he was sixth in the 100 with a time of 12.06. Jakob Ybarra added a fourth-place showing in the shot put with a throw of 12.26 meters and William Terhune placed sixth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:20.07.
Rounding out Tri-County’s placewinners was the 4×100-meter relay team of Curtis, Peyton Goble, Cale Turner and Matthew Manning, which was sixth with a time of 49.32.
Tri-County’s teams will be back in action on Thursday, April 14, traveling to the Trenton Relays, which are scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.
MERCER
The Mercer girls were 17th in the team standings, scoring 14 points. Tori Meinecke had a hand in all three placewinner performances for the Cardinals, including the team’s lone individual top-eight showing. Meinecke was fourth in the high jump with a mark of 1.5 meters.
In the 4×400-meter relay, Meinecke combined with Kaydee Hill, Rainey Michael and Gracie Rogers to finish fourth with a time of 5:00.7. In the 4×800, Meinecke, Michael, Rogers and Maddi Fisher placed fifth with a time of 12:26.82.
Mercer’s boys were paced by Jakub Janosik, who was eighth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:22.17. In the 4×800-meter relay, Janosik, Jayce Davis, Wes Hashman and Samuel Johnson combined to finish eighth with a time of 9:45.49.
Those two finishes netted Mercer two points, placing the Cardinals 24th at the meet.
Mercer’s track and field teams will see their next action on Wednesday at the Southwest Invitational in Ludlow. That event begins at 12:30 p.m.