The 58th Annual Butler Invitational highlighted the 6th week of the outdoor season. In total, we were at 12 meets this week and have 16 on tap next week including 5 invitationals. Let’s dive into this week’s recap:
On Monday at Hampton Middle School, the Indians of North Hills defeated the Talbots 72 to 59 in the girls meet and 113 to 19 in the boys meets. Also on Monday, the middle school Tigers of North Allegheny visited the Planets of Mars. NA won the girls meet by a score of 89 to 11 and the boys meet 102.50 to 6.50.
Tuesday featured three high school meets – Armstrong at Hampton, Slippery Rock at Hickory, and Eden Christian Academy, Sewickley Academy, and Quaker Valley at Riverview. At Fridley Field, Hampton defeated the River Hawks of Armstrong 83 to 58 on the girls side and 103 to 36 on the boys side.
In a key section meet in Hermitage, The Hickory girls defeated Slippery Rock 98 to 50, while the Slippery Rock boys beat Hickory 96.50 to 48.50.
Quaker Valley defeated Eden Christian, Sewickley Academy, and Riverview in both the girl’s and boy’s meets at Riverside Park in Oakmont.
Wednesday had three middle school meets. In Mars, the Fox Chapel girls beat the Planets 118 to 13, while the Mars boys overcame an early deficit to defeat the Foxes in a close meet 67 to 65. In Glenshaw, Shaler hosted both Butler and Pine Richland middle school. Pine Richland earned a pair of victories on the girls side, while the Golden Tornado of Butler earned a pair of victories on the boys side. In New Castle, Neshannock hosted New Brighton and Shenango. Shenango defeated both schools on the boy’s side, while Neshannock won both meets on the girl’s side.
Thursday featured The Cavalier Invitational in Chillicothe, Ohio roughly one hour south of Columbus. Chillicothe emerged victorious on both the boys and girls side. The Chillicothe girls edged out Circleville 165 to 162, while the boys bested 2nd place Zane Trace by a wider margin of 20.50 points. The Cavalier Invitational featured two elite performances both by Sydney Foglesong of Frankfort Adena High School. Sydney threw 133-6 in discus and 39-7.5 in shot put.
On Friday, the 58th annual Butler Invitational commenced at 11:00am, while the Seneca Valley Marcie Peaco Freshman/Sophomore Invitational started at 4:00pm. The Butler Invitational featured its largest field size in the event’s long and storied history. Over 2,000 individual athletes and 3,100 entries were made for the event and 78 teams participated. These record numbers led to record performances – 4 in fact. All four meet records were set on the girl’s side. Upper Saint Clair’s Dani Prunzik ran 12.07 in the 100m prelims breaking the previous meet record of 12.10 set by Charlie Davis 17 years ago in 2006. Prunzik won the 100m final in 12.40 and won the 200m in 25.41. Logan St. John Kletter of Mount Lebanon won the girls 3200m under the lights in a new meet record time of 10:25.58. Her time beat the previous meet record of 10:28.03 set by Moon’s Mia Cochran in 2021. Cochran, as you may know, single-handedly won the girls PIAA State Team Championship for Moon Area last spring. Meet records weren’t only set on the track. Hempfield’s Elizabeth Tapper broke both the shot put and discus meet records. Tapper threw 44-8 in the shot and 143-1 in the discus. While no meet records were set on the boy’s side, there were several outstanding performances including Ringgold junior, Ryan Pajak, winning the boys 3200m in a USA Top 10 time of 8:58.89 less than 1.50 seconds off the meet record set by CJ Singleton last year (8:57.60). Hampton junior, Dale Hall, took 2nd in the 3200m with a personal best and USA Top 50 time of 9:08.55. In the boys 800m, Moon’s Jacob Puhalla ran 1:53.11 edging out Riverview’s Amberson Bauer 1:53.22 for the 800m title. Both times currently rank among the Top 10 in the United States. In the field, Hempfield’s Peyton Murray threw state leading marks in the Discus (158-7) and Shot (50-10.25). Meanwhile, Erie’s Bradon Schneider cleared 15-1 in the Pole Vault – a USA Top 50 mark. In the team competition, the North Allegheny girls took home the title scoring 89 points -36 more points than the next closest team. In the boys’ meet North Allegheny and Slippery Rock were named co-champions – each scoring 49 points. The biggest Butler Invitational ever did not disappoint. According to PA MileSplit, there were 72 elite performances at the meet.
The week was capped off with a Pittsburgh Diocese track & field meet hosted at Lower Burrell.