PINE TWP — Wess Brahler wanted to see his Knoch boys tarck and field team flex its muscles a little more at Friday's Pine-Richland Invitational.

While Mother Nature had other ideas, the Knights definitely made their presence felt.

Knoch captured the storm-shortened meet, totaling 68 points, just ahead of runner-up New Castle (63C\v) and Canon-McMillan (58Z\v).

Because of the unsafe conditions, the final four track events, the 800, 200, 3,200 and 1,600 relay, weren't contested. Neither were the boys pole vault and long jump, nor the girls triple jump.

"We would have stayed until 10 p.m. if we had to," said Brahler, which would have put the delay at two hours. "We had guys performing very well and we were looking strong with some of those final events. It's just a shame not to finish it."

The Knights didn't have an overall champion, but did have 11 different placewinners in individual events and five more in two relays.

The lone Butler County winners came in the girls meet: Knoch's Regina Robb in the 300 hurdles, teammate Allyson Cress in the shot put and Karns City's Amber Saunders, who broke her meet record in the high jump.

But the Knights did have several high placewinners who scored points.

The Knights were second in the 3,200 relay and fourth in the 400 relay, plus they had a 3-4 showing by Owen Venesky and Brian Tackett in the 1,600 and Adam Tuzikow and Tim McCorkle in the discus, fourth and sixth place in the triple jump by Dylan Beck and Grayson Hixon and Andrew Rumburg-Goodlin, and Steve Snow were fifth and sixth in the 400.

Saunders repeated her title at the meet by clearing 5 feet, 4 inches. She won last year with a height of 5-2 to set the meet standard. She set the school record last year, equaled it this season at 5-3 and now has bumped it even higher.

"I did come in a little nervous and usually I don't," said Saunders. "During the week, I did not feel good at all. But the weather was nicer (earlier Friday) and I felt good."

So good, in fact, Saunders was eyeing a possible 5-6, but settled for 5-4.

"I was so close at 5-5," said Saunders. "I think I jumped in too early (at 4-11) and it was harder to kick my legs."

Cress' throw of 37-9Z\x was good enough to outdistance the field, but she was still shy of the 39-1 she recorded earlier this season.

"I think I was in a little funk," said Cress. "My coaches tell me that all the time. I get frustrated easily."

Cress connected on her winning toss on her third and final attempt, even though she had a good two feet of breathing room heading into that throw, but that was not what Cress wanted to hear.

"Coach said 34-4 was behind me after the second flight," said Cress. "For me, it's the complete opposite. I like knowing someone is a head of me. It's people that are behind me that worry me. Today, though, it played out in my favor."

Robb captured the girls 300 hurdles with a time of 47.47 seconds and placed second in the 100 hurdles with a time of 16.05, just behind champion Jess Markovitch of Deer Lakes (15.96).

There were three other runner-up performances: Mars' Marc Funderlich in the boys 400 (51.28), Knoch's Paul Kletzli in the boys 300 hurdles (41.97) and Seneca Valley's Caitlyn Fennello in a personal best 9-0 in the girls pole vault.