(TROY) The annual Herb Hartman Track Invitational was originally scheduled as a two day event for Thursday and Friday but today’s cold weather and rain/snow forecast forced organizers to to eliminate some events and make it a one day only meet.
Typical of weather this spring, this meet was held under mostly overcast skies with temperatures in the low 40’s and a brisk wind that create an all to familiar chill to the air plus a light rain after dark made things even more miserable but the athletes performed just as if it was 85 degrees under the sun.
Mason brought its juggernaut teams up I-75 and dominated both men’s and women’s competition with the men scoring a 143-89 victory over Fairmont and the women distancing Troy 153-114.
However, the area teams were not shut out from 1st place finishes.
Piqua’s Cassie Schrubb started things off with a win in the 2000 meter steeplechase edging out Troy’s Millie Peltier 8:15.75 to 8:21.93.
The next local athlete to claim victory was Troy’s Leah Harnish in the 400 meter run. Harnish led from starting to finish with a time just a half a second off the meet record of 57.35 set in 2018 and if the weather conditions were better there is a good chance that record would have fallen.
Troy’s Sophie Fong was the next up winning the pole vault with a meet record of 12’4″ breaking the mark set by Eileen Yang of Beavercreek by 1″. Proud dad David Fong commented that it couldn’t be better to have pole vault record set at the Hartman Invitational by an athlete train by Mr. Herb Hartman.
Piqua’s Camilla Nicholas was the next county champion in the 200 besting Nadiyah Jacobs of Northmont with a time of 26.37.
Troy’s Lena Walker then bested fellow Trojan Ebony Six in the discus 101′ 9″ to 101′ 3″ in a competition held in the dark with auxiliary lighting.
The final local athlete to claim a title was Annie Sinning winning the 3200 in 11:57.28 over Ruby Gross of Carroll who finished 6 seconds behind.
For the local men, Piqua’s Jasiah Medley took second in 100, Troy’s Colin Stoltz was 4th in the 200, Tippecanoe’s Grayson Ring was 4th in the high jump and Troy’s Gavin Hutchinson finished a close 3rd in the 800 with the top 3 runners all under 2 minutes.