JEFFERSON TWP — The weather was warm, the times were fast and the athletes were smiling.

Just the way Knoch track coach Wess Brahler drew it up.

Butler easily won the boys and girls portions of the sixth annual Knoch Relays Saturday at Knoch High School. But the day was about a lot more than competition.

All events were run as relays, including individual events in which a team's participants' scores were added together to determine the event's winner.

“We used to go to the Franklin Relays, the Karns City Relays, but those events don't exist anymore,” Brahler said. “We could always jump into an Invite somewhere, but no one on this side of the state runs a relay type of event, so we decided to start one.

“Finally, we got great weather. We had to cancel last year's event because of snow and we've run this thing in wind chills below zero before. This was a great day.”

Butler coach Mike Seybert agreed.

“Not every meet has to be North Allegheny vs. Butler, that kind of intensity,” Seybert said. “We're 15 minutes from home, in our own backyard, having a good time.

“These kids are all smiling. You're supposed to smile in this sport.”

A lot of athletes had plenty to smile about on this day:

Butler's Jack Codispot hit a personal-best pole vault of 15 feet, 2 inches, narrowly missing Jared Farabee's school-record 15-5 set in 1998. Codispot landed on top of the bar as he tried to vault 15-6.

“The weather was good and there was some wind behind me. I thought I could do it,” Codispot said of breaking Farabee's record. “I used the full run-up instead of just the half, too.

“I'm confident I'll get it this spring at some point. I thought I had it on that last attempt.”

Butler's 1,000 meter Swedish relay team of Byron Manchester, Ryan Marcella, Cody Reddick and Cade Gratzmiller broke the previous school record of 2 minutes, 8 seconds by running a 2:05.14.

“We ran in the slower heat, too, which made it more difficult,” Marcella said of the record. “We've been doing well in practice, so, yeah, it was nice to get that done.”

Butler's girls won the 4x100 shuttle, 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400 relay events.

“This is the first year I've been able to compete in this (Knoch Relays),” sophomore and anchor runner Gabby Boden said. “It was fun. We felt relaxed, yet competitive at the same time.

“It's by far the best weather we've run in so far this year. We're getting a lot out of this.”

Butler's Bella Shook won the girls triple jump, Anna Baxter the 300-meter hurdles, Autumn Pettinato the javelin. Manchester won the 300 hurdles on the boys side.

Knoch's Sammy Jo Barnes finished second in the 1,600 meters, Liam King second to Manchester in the 300 hurdles.

Moniteau won the relay score in the boys discus and shot put, led by James Parenti. He threw the discus 157 feet, 3 inches, the shot put 50-6 in winning both events.

Moniteau's Kendall Grossman won the girls pole vault with a 10-6. Kyle Norling finished second to Codispot in the boys pole vault.

“It was big for James to hit 50 feet in the shot put. That's something he's never done,” Moniteau coach Ryan Protzman said. “Breaking that barrier will help him moving forward.”

Butler coach John Williams liked the relays format, that enabled teams to put six participats in running events and two full units on the track for relay events.

“This gave us an opportunity to run a lot of young kids out there in a varsity meet,” he said. “Our kids gained some valuable experience. We had Piper Geibel run a personal record in the 800 during the sprint relay, freshman Mylee Tate set a personal record in the triple jump ... Those are big confidence builders.

“We have North Allegheny coming up Tuesday, so this meet was perfectly timed for us. It's a good way to prepare for that meet.”

To officially be scored in an event, a team had to have so many participants competing. Due to ankle issues plaguing Tyler Rekich and Andrew Arbansas, Butler needed one more hurdler to be scored in the 300 hurdles.

Tim Patterson did the event despite never having even practriced it before.

He fell over hurdles twice while coming in last.

“I'm a distance runner,” Patterson said. “When the coaches asked me to step in and do hurdles, I thought it was a joke. But it was for the team.

“I figured I would fall more than twice. I don't know how those guys clear those hurdles while still running. I stopped and jumped over them. I had no idea what I was doing.

“I did it for the team ... but I'll never do that again,” Patterson said, laughing.

With 10 teams participating, the Knoch Relays marked the first large track meet of the season.

“Kudos to Coach Brahler for putting this event on,” Williams said. “This benefitted a lot of kids.”

KNOCH RELAYS

Team Standings

Boys

Butler 140 points, Beaver 68, Moniteau 60, Elk County Catholic 57, Avonworth-Northgfate 53, Kiski Area 48, Knoch 45, OLSH 5, Riverview 4, Highlands 3

Girls

Butler 142, Kiski Area 80, KKnoch 55, Avonworth-Northgate 48, Beaver 45, Riverside 38, OLSH 24, Elk County Catholic 20, Quaker Valley 12