Knott, sprint relay shine at GCMS Invitational

The St. Joseph-Ogden High School boys’ track and field team went two weeks in between competitions.

Blame Mother Nature for that.

But the Spartans made the most of their opportunity on Tuesday at the Falcon Invitational hosted by Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley, finishing fourth at the 11-team meet after being a late addition to the field.

SJO compiled 73 points, just behind Clifton Central (105), Paxton-Buckley-Loda (104) and GCMS (81). Ridgeview (61) rounded out the top five schools.

The Spartans emerged with two first-place finishes as the 400-meter relay team of Dwight Colvin, Aiden Meyer, Brayden Grimsey and Lane Gaskin blazed around the track in 44.48 seconds to top the rest of the relays.

Hayden Knott performed well in the discus, winning the field event with a toss of 138 feet, 3 inches.

SJO added 10 other efforts that resulted in top-five finishes to aid its efforts in Gibson City. Meyer placed second in the 100 with a time of 11.35 and Eric Poe also finished second in the 800 with a time of 2:07.73.

Lane Gaskin in the 200 (23.47), Ethan Vanilew in the 400 (55.73) and the 1,600 relay quartet of Keanen Swanson, Brady Buss, Meyer and Kaleb Harshbarger (3:37.65) all placed third for SJO.

Brandon Mattsey in the 1,600 (4:57.72), Isiah McCune in the 3,200 (10:47.18) and Swanson in the triple jump (37-0.5) all finished fourth, while Swanson in the 400 (56.80) and Vanilew in the high jump (5-6) brought home fifth-place finishes.

SJO is set to return to the track at 4:30 p.m. this Friday when it hosts the annual Spartan Classic. On the girls’ side, SJO is set to compete at both the Monticello Invitational and Urbana Open, with both meets starting at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.