BUTLER TWP — The 53rd Butler Invitational track and field meet takes place today at Art Bernardi Stadium.

The event — involving 65 teams and more than 1,500 athletes — was scheduled to begin at 12:15 p.m. today and will run for hours.

Among the notable programs competing are Baldwin, Burrell, host Butler, Cathedral Prep, Farrell, Fox Chapel, Gateway, Greater Latrobe, Greensburg Salem, Grove City, Indiana, Kiski Area, Knoch, Mars, McDowell, Mt. Lebanon, Morgantown, North Allegheny, Penn Hills, Seneca Valley, Slippery Rock, Villa Maria Academy, Wheeling Park, West Mifflin and Wheeling Park.

Butler is the meet’s defending girls champion while West Mifflin won the boys title a year ago.

Knoch senior Jordan Geist is the lone male Butler County athlete holding an individual Butler Invitational record. He owns two — a shot put of 69 feet, 7.5 inches and a discus throw of 182-10. He figures to break both marks today as his seeds entering the meet are 74-10.25 in the shot put and 197-11 in the discus.

Butler does hold the Invite’s 4x800 meter relay record of 7:51.5, set in 2001.

Moniteau graduate Maura Kimmel — now competing at the University of Pennsylvania — owns the girls discus record at 140-3.

Kimmel set that mark last year. Nine meet records were broken during the 2016 Invite.

County female athletes among the top seeds in their respective events today are Butler’s Alexis Leech (4th in 200 meters, second in 400), Liz Simms (first in 800), Jena Reinheimer (2nd in shot put and discus), Taylor Weaver (1st in pole vault) and Moniteau’s Kendall Grossman (2nd in pole vault).

On the boys side, Geist is seeded first in the shot put and discus, Butler’s Noah Beveridge second in the 1,600 meters.