North Adams’ Morgan Wheeler, left, and Peebles’ Kiera Scott, right, compete in the Girls 100M Hurdles at the April 15 West Union Invitational. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)

North Adams’ Morgan Wheeler, left, and Peebles’ Kiera Scott, right, compete in the Girls 100M Hurdles at the April 15 West Union Invitational. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)

<p>Manchester sophomore Amillion Brown was the champion of the Boys 100M Dash at last week’s West Union Invitational with a time of 12.04. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)</p>

Manchester sophomore Amillion Brown was the champion of the Boys 100M Dash at last week’s West Union Invitational with a time of 12.04. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
<p>With a jump of 4’10”, North Adams sophomore Bella Gray took first place in the Girls High Jump event at the West Union Invitational. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)</p>

With a jump of 4’10”, North Adams sophomore Bella Gray took first place in the Girls High Jump event at the West Union Invitational. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
<p>Dressed for the elements, West Union’s Jakab Thompson competes in the Boys 4 x 800 Relay in the West Union Invitational on April 15. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)</p>

Dressed for the elements, West Union’s Jakab Thompson competes in the Boys 4 x 800 Relay in the West Union Invitational on April 15. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

To be truthful, there haven’t been a whole lot of pleasant days thus far this spring for outdoor spring sports. Perfect evidence of that came on Tuesday, April 15 at West Union High School as the Dragons hosted their annual West Union Invitational Track Meet. The weather was less than ideal for a track meet, temperatures in the 40’s with wind and damp ground from previous rainfall. With all that said, the show must go on and teams from 11 schools in southern Ohio braved the elements to produce a successful meet. Besides host West Union, teams from North Adams, Eastern Brown, Manchester, Fairfield, Fayetteville, Portsmouth Notre Dame, Ripley, Lynchburg, Felicity and Peebles competed in the cold weather, running into the brisk wind.

Despite the weather, two teams from Adams County had very successful days. taking home the first place team trophies The North Adams girls scored 114, easily outdistancing second place Eastern Brown (91), while the Manchester boys at 126 got past second place Peebles (122).

In the Boys 100M Dash, the champion for the day was Manchester’s Amillion Brown with a time of 12:04 with Peebles’ Cooper Meade placing third at 12.17. In the Boys 200M Dash, Peebles’ Damian McCann placed second (25.39) with Manchester’s Brown third (25.47). The Boys 400M Dash saw Manchester’s Joel Blythe the winner with a time of 56.13 with West Union’s Adam Cooper third at 57.81.

Countians took the top two spots in the Boys 800M Run with first place going to Manchester’s Ryan Mack (2:20.54) and second going to Peebles freshman Calen Vogler (2:23.33). In the Boys 1600M Run, Manchester’s Ryan Butcher-Raines was third (5:12.24) and Raines also placed third in the 3200M Run with a time of 11:07.14.

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