Indian Lake’s track and field teams rose to the occasion in front of their home crowd at the Laker Invitational on Thursday.
The Laker boys finished second out of nine teams, while the girls squad was fourth.
St. Marys won the boys meet with 152 points and the Lakers had 107.5 for their second-place finish. Wapakoneta finished third (86.5), Bath was fourth (77) and Sidney was fifth (72).
Calvary Christian also competed and was ninth with 21 points.
“It was great to see the men’s team have success at our home invitational,” said Indian Lake head coach Justin Metzger. “The seniors were recognized and they will be missed. Dustin had a great meet again and the rest of the team stepped up, battled though the rain, and we were able to come away with the runner-up trophy due to their outstanding efforts. We are excited to host the CBC meet next week and are looking forward to the opportunity to complete for conference championships.”
Indian Lake’s boys team was again led by standout Dustin Franks, who won the high jump (6-0), 110 hurdles (15.93) and 300 hurdles (42.24) and placed second in the long jump (19-2.75).
Brant Parsell also had a good night as he placed third in the 110 hurdles (17.47), sixth in the 300 hurdles (47.32), seventh in the pole vault (8-6) and was part of the 4×400 relay that finished fourth. The rest of the relay team included Ian Wischmeyer, Reid Vance and Reid Notestine (3:49).
Vance was third in the 400 (54.13), Brandan Rettig placed fifth in the shot put (42-10) and discus (125-7), Caiden Gauntt placed fifth in the long jump (18-4.5) and Ryan Culp placed fifth in the pole vault (8-6).
Also for the Laker boys, Kaleb Hurley placed sixth in the 400 (56.63) and seventh in the 200 (25.22), Grant McPherson placed sixth in the 3,200 (11:13) and Nate Cummins was eighth in the 1,600 (5:15).
For the rest of the relays, the 4×800 team of Tony Cummins, Nate Cummins, Jacob Huhn and Grant McPherson placed third (9:25), the 4×100 team of Notestine, Eli Slagle, Caiden Gauntt and Colin Burba placed fifth (49.14) and the 4×200 team of Wischmeyer, Hurley, Vance and Burba placed fifth (1:39).
For Calvary’s boys team, Isaac Reinhard led the way with a second-place finish in the discus (130-3), a fourth-place finish in the 100 (11.87) and a fifth-place effort in the shot put (42-10). Ephraim Daniels added a sixth-place finish in the 800 (2:22.87).
St. Marys also won the girls meet with 131.5 points. Greenville was second with 121.5, Bath was third with 119, Indian Lake had 115 for fourth and Wapakoneta rounded out the top five with 75. Calvary Christian was eighth with five points.
“The women’s team was able to score in every event tonight, but they landed just six points shy of second place,” said Metzger. “It was nice to see our field events improve and we want to continue the momentum into next week’s CBC championships.”
Reese Martin led the Lakers by placing third in the 100 hurdles (17.35) and 300 hurdles (53.05), fifth in the pole vault (7-0) and third in the 4×200 relay with Elayna Richardson, Jalan Martin and Ava Huffman (1:54).
Jalan Martin was third in the 400 (1:05.23), fourth in the 200 (28.7) and was third in the 4×400 relay with KaiLea Miller, Chloe Sparks and Huffman (4:31).
Elayna Richardson was third in the 200 (28.59), eighth in the 100 and second in the 4×100 relay with Raelyn Parsell, Allexxie West and Ava Huffman (53.8).
Also for the Lady Lakers, Ella Wagner was fifth in the 800 (2:44) and sixth in the 1,600 (5:52) and was second in the 4×800 relay with KaiLea Miller, Chloe Sparks and Kaitlyn Shaner (10:55), Grace Pequigot was fourth in the shot put (31-9) and discus (81-10), Hannah Metzger was fourth in the 3,200 (13:21), Callie Notestine was fourth in the pole vault (7-0), KaiLea Miller was fourth in the 1,600 (5:51), Chloe Sparks was fifth in the 400 (1:08), Allexxie West was sixth in the 100 (13.85) and long jump (14-3.5), Hailee Reser was sixth in the shot put (28-10), Raelyn Parsell was seventh in the 100 hurdles (18.46) and 300 hurdles (56.05), Regan Ross was seventh in the discus (77-7), Ava Huffman was seventh in the high jump (4-4) and Megan Kimbler was eighth in the long jump (13-4).
For Calvary’s girls team, Hailey Howard was eighth in the 400 (1:10.11). Ruby Slemmons set a school record of 2:49.83 in the 800 and the 800 relay team of Chloe Prall, Abigail Reinhard, Howard and Anastacia Rogan set a new school record with a time of 2:05.34.
Indian Lake hosts the Central Buckeye Conference meet Tuesday and Friday.