Manchester’s Hayden Rideout, left, was the champion of the 100M Dash, 200M Dash and Long Jump at the April 23 West Union Junior High Invitational. (Photo by Patrice Yezzi England)

Manchester’s Hayden Rideout, left, was the champion of the 100M Dash, 200M Dash and Long Jump at the April 23 West Union Junior High Invitational. (Photo by Patrice Yezzi England)

<p>North Adams’ Lillian Harper placed third in the Girls 100M Hurdles and second in the 200M Hurdles at last week’s West Union Junior High Invitational. (Photo by Patrice Yezzi England)</p>

North Adams’ Lillian Harper placed third in the Girls 100M Hurdles and second in the 200M Hurdles at last week’s West Union Junior High Invitational. (Photo by Patrice Yezzi England)
<p>North Adams’ Jax Kingsley competes in the Shot Put event at last week’s West Union Junior High Invitational. (Photo by Patrice Yezzi England)</p>

North Adams’ Jax Kingsley competes in the Shot Put event at last week’s West Union Junior High Invitational. (Photo by Patrice Yezzi England)

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

The West Union High School track was the site on April 23 of the 2025 West Union Junior High Invitational, where 12 girls and boys teams from southern Ohio gathered for an afternoon of track and field competition. Besides host West Union, teams from Georgetown, Whiteoak, Eastern Brown, Manchester, North Adams, Fairfield, Hillboro, Peebles, Fayetteville, Lynchburg, and Ripley were on hand with Georgetown winning the team title for girls and Eastern Brown for boys.

Many of the Adams County athletes has successful days and following is a list of all who placed in the top five of their events (champions in bold).

Boys 100M Dash: 2. Eros Dunkin, NAJH (12.74)

Boys 200M Dash: 3. Eros Dunkin, NAJH (26.36)

Boys 400M Dash: 1. Fletcher Watkins, WUJH (1:00.05); 2. Eros Dunkin, NAJH (1:01.53)

Boys 800M Run: 3. Holden Crum, PJH (2:32.06)

Boys 110M Hurdles: 3. Ethan Caldwell, WUJH (18.25); 4. Jaxson McCleese, PJH (21.46)

Boys 200M Hurdles: 4. Ethan Caldwell, WUJH (30.57)

Boys 4 x 100 Relay: 2. West Union (53.65); 4. Peebles (55.02)

Boys 4 x 200 Relay: 4. West Union (2:03.07)

Boys High Jump: 2. Fletcher Watkins, WUJH (5’0”); 5. Ashton Ashworth, PJH (4’4”)

Boys Long Jump: 3. Ryan Parker, MJH (15’4.75”); 4. Caleb Phipps, PJH (14’11.5”)

Boys Discus: 5. Walker Newman, PJH (91’10”)

Boys Shot Put: 3. Jax Kingsley, NAJH (32’2.5”); 4. Walker Newman, PJH (31’10.5”); 5. Brody Hall, WUJH (31’3:)

Girls 100M Dash: 1. Hayden Rideout, MJH (12.68); 5. Rylen Shiveley, NAJH (14.23)

Girls 200M Dash: 1. Hayden Rideout, MJH (26.25); 4. Rylen Shiveley, NAJH (29.80)

Girls 400M Dash: 3. Lola Semple, NAJH (1:06.79); 4. Katie Myers, PJH (1:08.05)

Girls 800M Run: 2. Mariah Gadd, MJH (2:39.54); 4. Trinity Bosko, NAJH (2:51.22)

Girls 1600M Run: 2. Haylee Wheler, NAJH (6:10.89); 5. Trinity Bosko, NAJH (6:21.80)

Girls 100M Hurdles: 2. Mariah Gadd, MJH (17.65); 3. Lillian Harper, NAJH (19.05); 5. Aniston Friend, MJH (19.74)

Girls 200M Hurdles: 2. Lillian Harper, NAJH (33.08)

Girls 4 x 100 Relay: 3. Peebles (59.08)

Girls 4 x 400 Relay: 2. North Adams (4:53.93); 4. Manchester (4:59.98)

Girls 4 x 800 Relay: 5. North Adams (14:15.14)

Girls High Jump: 1. Katie Myers, PJH (4’10”); 4. Zaylee McClanahan, PJH (4’4”)

Girls Long Jump: 1. Hayden Rideout, MJH (14’10.25”); 2. Katie Myers, PJH (14’3.25”)

2025 West Union JH Invitational Team Standings:

Girls- Georgetown 95, Whiteoak 69, Eastern Brown 68, Manchester 65, North Adams 60, Hillsboro 53, Fairfield 53, Peebles 48, Fayetteville 35, Lynchburg 24, West Union 9, Ripley 3

Boys- Eastern Brown 94, Georgetown 92, Fayetteville 84, Fairfield 53, West Union 51, Hillsboro 50.5, Peebles 47.5, North Adams 37, Whiteoak 33, Lynchburg 17, Manchester 12, Ripley 8