Record Haul
SLIPPERY ROCK — Even when matched against other top athletes from around the WPIAL, the dominance of Butler's boys track and field team continued.
The Golden Tornado collected six gold medals out of 18 events at the district's Class 3A championship meet, held Wednesday at Slippery Rock University.
Junior standout Guinness Brown won the 100 and 200-meter dashes, Skyler Vavro the 1,600 run, CJ Singleton the 3,200 and Landon Kretzer the javelin for the team's five individual wins.
The quartet of Raine Gratzmiller, Lucas Slear, Vavro and Singleton also brought home a victory in the 4x800 relay.
“This is the biggest WPIAL meet we've ever had in school history,” said Butler coach Mike Seybert. “It was a hot day and it's a challenge to have kids run multiple events.
“We obviously want to have kids win WPIAL championships, but even bigger for us is to be sending a lot of them to the state championship meet.”
Brown began his day by winning the 100 in 10.88 seconds, just .08 seconds in front of Seneca Valley's Tyler Yurich.
“I didn't expect it to be easy,” Brown said. “I knew there were other fast kids. My goals are to get my time down, not win medals. Still, it feels good to get that first one.”
Vavro's win in the 1,600 run came after his sophomore and junior seasons were halted due to injury and COVID, respectively.He trailed teammate CJ Singleton for nearly the entire race, but a late push had him crossing the finish line first in 4:13.98, or .12 seconds ahead of Singleton.“The last few times I'd run the 1,600, I started out fast and I blew up in the last 800,” Vavro said. “Today, I came out slower, just wanted to be comfortable with it.“I was mentally preparing for this all week. Ever since I was a freshman, I wanted to be one of the best to run this event.”Singleton was visibly disappointed in placing second in the 1,600, but said: “I ran as well as I could. What can I do? That's my teammate,” he said, referring to Vavro.Late in the meet, Singleton earned his first WPIAL title in the 3,200.Yurich, a junior, found it difficult to get the 100 dash out of his mind after narrowly losing out to Brown. It was still on his mind when he grabbed the baton for the anchor leg of the 4x100 relay. In third place at the time, Yurich bolted toward the finish line, passing the two sprinters in front of him to hand the Raiders the relay crown.The foursome also included Nick Hartman, Aiden Kutchma and Nolan Dworek. They set a new school standard in the event with a time of 42.56.“I won the 100 here as a freshman and expected more of myself today and that had a lot to do with the way I ran in the relay,” Yurich said. “I'm still disappointed, but winning the relay and getting the record, I'm going home happier than I was.”North Catholic's Trevor Paschall could walk to the top spot on the medals stand in his sleep. He ended up there four times Wednesday.The junior and Cranberry Township resident won the 100, 200, 400 and was part of the winning 4x100 relay team.“I was seeded (first or second) in all my events,” he said. “I wanted to come in here and show these guys what a Catholic boy can do.“But to win four times, I never expected this. It's the most amazing feeling.”North's winning relay effort (43.28), which also included Jack Fennell, Kyle Tipinski and Luke Mager, was in third place when Paschall took over as the anchor.“My boys worked too (darn) hard,” he said. “We weren't going to finish third.”Paschall won his individual events with times of 10.98 (100), 22.37 (200) and 49.45 (400).North coach Terry Fischer knows the effort Paschall put in to achieve such a feat.“It's unusual to come here and win three events, let alone four,” he said. “It's a tremendous achievement and speaks to all the hard work Trevor has put in. He's done everything we've asked.”The lone Butler County girls champ in either meet was Butler's Emma Lehman, who snagged the 3A title in the 300 hurdles.“At the start of the year, my time continued to drop and I got better and better with my training,” she said. “This feels great ... after I worked my butt off all season.”
