North Union’s Ben Bonnell prepares to take a handoff from Lauren Hall during a relay race. NU hosted the first-ever Richwood Co-ed Relays.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Aleksei Pavloff)
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Competing in a unique format, North Union, Fairbanks, Pleasant and Buckeye Valley competed in the first-ever Richwood Co-Ed Relays at North Union.
The meet was staged with normal relay meet events, but with a little bit of a twist.
Instead of separate male and female teams, each event was run with two of each on a team.
“We wanted it to be a fun meet for all the kids,” North Union head coach Cole Krawczyk. “This was a fun meet in the middle of the season.”
Fairbanks assistant coach Ben Shaffer agreed the pressure of competing was lessened a little.
“It brought the stress level down a little bit,” he said. “We were able to have those that haven’t run much this season and they did well.”
There was no limit to the amount of entries in each event a team could have.
“I think everybody got a chance to compete,” Krawczyk said. “It takes a little pressure off and they had free rein of what they wanted to do.”
“It was fun and we got to do something new,” North Union senior Carter Skaggs said. “We were still working hard, but it was more relaxed and we had fun with it.”
The final point totals showed Buckeye Valley in first place with 49 points, followed by North Union (46), Pleasant (44) and Fairbanks (16).
North Union’s 4×800 team of Kennedy Ludwig, Lauren Hall, Zachary Miller and Ben Bonnell was the lone area first-place finisher in the running events with a time 9:51.29.
North Union also captured the high jump and long jump and Fairbanks won the pole vault.
The Wildcats totaled 71-7.25 in the long jump with the team of Gabby Lindsey, Riley Heminger, Wyatt Davis and Braedon Scowden,
They went 19-10 in the high jump with the group of Lily Leavitt, Stella Hancock, Scowden and Davis.
The winning Fairbanks foursome in the pole vault were Allie Boyd, Elli Shaffer, Elton Bailey and William Jiminez.
Boyd had the top height in the girls pole vault, clearing 8-6. It was a new Lady Panther school record, breaking the old mark of 8-0 set by Jordan Perry.
North Union had three top individual finishers in boys field events.
Owen Hoffer won the shot put (124-8), Scowden topped the high jump field (5-10) and Henry Hayward led in the pole vault (10-6).