EATON — Eaton track coach Randy McKinney felt his boys’ and girls’ teams made great strides this past Saturday (April 23) at the annual Dean Stoltz Invitational.
“What a great day of weather and a great day of competition with both the men and women’s field of 13 teams,” he said. “
The men’s team placed in a three way tie for second place with St. Marys Memorial and Versailles with a team score of 70 points. Talawanda captured the meet with 90 points. The Lady Eagles placed sixth overall with 79.5 points.
McKinney added three teams from Preble County participated, two out of state teams along with teams from the Southwest and the Northwest districts.
“We had the opportunity to see some teams that we will run into at the regional championships in the middle of May,” he said.
The men’s team standings were close with only 16 points separating second through 10th place. In the women’s teams standings 18.5 points separated second through sixth place.
“There were some outstanding talented individuals and relays which accounts for the small point gap between so many teams,” McKinney said. “We had a lot of great performances with both the Eaton men and women’s teams with several individual and relay season best performances.”
Individually for Eaton, Delaney Deaton placed first in the women’s hammer along with a second place finish in the discus. Morgan White placed second in the women’s hammer.
Josh Martin placed second in the men’s long jump and high jump.
Cody DePoyster placed second overall in the men’s discus.
Clayton Kiracofe placed third in the mens’ shot put and Hayden Bratton placed third in the men’s hammer.
Lauren Guiley placed third in the women’s 1,600 meter run, the women’s 4 x 100 relay of Camryn Bates, Maddie Haynes, Kurstyn Pitsinger and Amyah Thacker placed third overall and the women’s 4 x 400 relay of Kaili Hewitt, Addi Guiley, Kiera Elliott and Lauren Guiley placed third overall.
In addition there were several athletes and relay teams that placed in the top eight places scoring points for the Eagles men and women’s teams.
“Overall it was a great team effort for both the men and women’s teams,” McKinney said.
The Eagles have full slate of meets scheduled over the next few weeks.
”This upcoming week we will compete in the Preble County Championship meet, the Monroe Invitational and a few of our athletes will compete on Friday evening at the Wayne Invitational,” he said. “We are quickly closing in on the championship portion of our season. The SWBL will be here in two weeks with the District Championships in three weeks. Our goal is to get everyone healthy and ready for that segment of the season.
“Saturday was a big step in the right direction for our program and individual athletes.”
Tri-County North girls finished 10th with five points and Twin Valley South was 11th with 2 1/3 points.
On the boys side, Twin Valley South was 10th with 54 points. Tri-County North was 12th with 21, while Eaton’s B team and Preble Shawnee tied for 13th with six points.
