ADAMS TWP — If you’re going to have a big meet, you may as well do it on your home track, in front of your community, in your own invitational

Mars’ Lydia Dennis captured the long and triple jumps at the Mars Track and Field Invitational Friday, earning a share of the Field MVP as well.

“I’m just so excited,” said the sophomore, who hit 17 feet, 11 inches in the long jump and 37-5 in the triple jump, both personal bests.

“I felt like today was going to be a good day,” Dennis said. “As soon as I stepped out on the track, I thought I had a good chance of winning.”

In both events, Dennis edged Freeport’s Bronte Soul, who cleared 17-8½ and 36-93/4, respectively.

“I’m looking at it one meet at a time,” Dennis said. “I want to do my best. My goal is to get to states.”

Dennis also played a key role in Mars placing third in the 1,600 relay (4;17.46).

Having competed in some hurdles events as well as the high jump last year as a freshman, Dennis scaled back and will compete in three events.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen this year,” Dennis said. “Luckily I got better.

“I’ve got all personal records this year, by at least a foot in the jumps,” Dennis added.

Knoch’s Samantha Logan also came up big, particularly in a relatively new event — the 800.

Logan, a junior, won the 800 with a personal-best 2:19.32. This was only the third time she ran the open 800, the first time two weeks ago when she won the Butler Invitational with a time of 2:22.68.

And she needed that winning time because she overtook DuBois’ Catherine Sheffo (2:19.33) just before the finish to win by 1/100 of a second.

“I always give everything I’ve got in the final 200 meters,” Logan said. “I wasn’t sure if I could catch her. She had me by about 10 or 15 meters.

“She started going into Lane 2 and I just stayed inside. I was hoping she wasn’t going to cut me off,” Logan added.

Instead Sheffo veered enough, which allowed Logan to pass for the win.

“She’s really progressed,” Knoch coach Judy Geist said. “Her goal is to get to states in the 800. That would be nice for her because she’s always doing it for the relays.”

“Actually, there was another girl running in the 800 that had run a 2:20 and Sam said ‘I want to beat 2:20 with her.’ She sets as goal and she’ll go after it,” Geist added.

Logan was also a member of the runner-up 3,200 relay (9:55.77) and the 1,600 relay (4;10.96), joined by Emilee Hertweck and Tess Haverstick in both races. Ashlyn Carlsson was the other member of the 3,200 relay, Jessica Wise the 1,600 relay.

“The 3,200 relay, that was just the fourth time we ran it all together,” Logan said. “We ran it five seconds faster ... but we need to drop 20 seconds if we want to qualify for states (9:35).”

Grove City’s Eliza Lowe was first as a member of the winning 1,600 relay (4:07.96), was second in the 300 hurdles (47.55) and third in the 100 hurdles (15.87).