River’s Maci Isaly passes the baton to Brooke Huffman during the Pilots’ 4x200-meter relay race on Thursday at the John Marshall Invitational inside Monarch Stadium. Photo by Nick Henthorn

MOUNDSVILLE — As the temperature goes up, the times go down.

That was the case Thursday at the John Marshall Invitational on Thursday inside Monarch Stadium, where multiple local coaches expressed that, as the first good-weather meet of the year for many of the teams, it was no surprise to see a plethora of PR’s across their squads.

At the end of the five-hour odyssey from beginning to end Thursday, it was the Trinity boys team out of Washington, PA and the hosting John Marshall Monarch girls team which took the gold at the meet. The Barnesville Shamrocks came in second in both boys and girls competition, with the Trinity girls and the John Marshall boys each coming in third.

For the Monarch girls, they were able to defend their home turf by putting on a strong display.

“It’s always great to win on your home field,” Monarchs girls head coach Jim Taylor said. “The kids feel proud about it, the school, the community, it’s always nice when you can do that.”

It was distance events which led the way for John Marshall on Thursday,

John Marshall won multiple events, as expected of the first-place team. Kalyn Reese won the 3200, in a meet-record 11:34.56, and Paislee Babiczuk also set a meet record with a 36’1″ shot put. She also won the discus throw. Sarah Hess won the 100-meter dash, while the Monarchs 4×200 relay team of Wrya Pratt, Elin McGuire, Savannah Potts and Sarah Hess, the 4×400 relay team of Lauren Whetzel, Sarah Hess, Brooke Cole, and Kalyn Reese, and the 4×800 relay team of Nia Miller, Brooke Cole, Lily Williams and Kalyn Reese each also won.

“Some of my top runners are injured, so some of the next-level girls really stepped up and filled in nicely to help us get the win,” Taylor said. “Sarah, who’s my top sprinter, she won the 100 and anchored the 4×200 that won. Kalyn Reese won the 3200, she anchored the 4×400 that won, she anchored the 4×800 that won. Really being led by the distance events right now- and throwing, Paisley Babiczuk won both the shot and disc.”

It was a continuance of a strong season for John Marshall.

“I’m proud of them, they’re really starting to step it up,” said Taylor. “In the power rankings this week, we were seventh in the state. There’s a lot of stars here and they’re starting to come through.”

On the boys side, John Marshall’s third-place finish was paced by Xavier Wells’ first-place 400-meter run, crossing the finish line in 51.35 seconds.

“Xavier Wells on our 4×400 got us from fourth to second there in that last event, he’s been killing it all season,” John Marshall boys head coach Mitchell Burkett said. “His 200 wasn’t where it normally is but his 400 was another personal best. He’s going to be all over the place this season.”

Another athlete who Burkett shouted out was freshman Dalton Cooper, who competed in his first meet on Thursday after suffering an injury right before the beginning of the season. He ran in the 100-meter dash and came in third, clocking an 11.09. The time was good for third-best in his class.

“He’s third in the state of West Virginia in AAA because of that run,” Burkett said. “He’s looking really good especially for his first meet.”

The praiseworthy performances extended further still.

“Our 4×800 looked good, they’re been dropping time all season,” Burkett said. “That’s kind of headlined with Atreyu Dudley and Brodie Baker, those two have been splitting really good times this season

“We did pretty well. I was very satisfied- Trinity, out of PA, they’re rally good. Barnesville’s one of the best teams in the OVAC. Coming in third to those two, I have no qualms with that at all. We put some new people in new events tonight, switched some things around.”

Burkett is already looking ahead for his team.

“I could see us sending four relays down to state, Dalton in the 100, Xavier in four events,” he said. “This is definitely the best John Marshall team we’ve had since I was coaching, and this is my fourth year.”

Barnesville’s runner-up efforts were brought about by several meet records for the boys.

The boys’ 4×800 meter relay team of Brady Powell, Conner Starr, Braedon Willis and Mason Starr set a meet record with a time of 8:44.44, while their 4×110 shuttle hurdle squad of Joel Detling, Colt Detling, Phoenix Graham and Eli Messenger set a meet record with a 1:05.07. Messenger also took home gold in the 110 hurdles and 300 hurdles.

“We had a lot of great performances, the first good weather meet of the year, really, so we were expecting good things,” Barnesville boys head coach Dylan Rogers said. “A lot of PR’s a lot of young kids stepped up today. One of the good things about our boys team is there’s a lot of depth, a lot of competition on our team. Every meet there’s somebody else pushing for a relay spot or a top two spot. That really showed today.

“Our team is really gelling right now, they’re working hard outside of these meets they’re working hard at these meets. I just couldn’t be more proud of our guys. One of the best things about our group is that team comes first. We’ve had to make some changes in meets, relays and things, and kids are 100% for it because they’re a team-first group.”

Barnesville’s girls were led by Aiva Leasure, who cleared 8 feet in the pole vault to take first place.

“Total team effort,” Barnesville girls head coach Ryan Grear said. “We’re an awfully young team but we’re led by really good seniors.”

“As I was looking at next week, we’re finally a full squad for the first time this year, when it comes to sickness and injuries. We’re just putting it all together. So this was a total team effort, we don’t look at individuals per se, not as much as some teams do, we’re a total team effort. That’s important to us, being that we’re a fairly small team on the girls’ side.”

“We have a lot of confidence going into the Buckeye 8 next week.”

Throughout the rest of the eight-team field, Ramello Derr broke the meet record by over one foot in the long jump with a 22’0″ leap, Union Local’s Connor Bendo won the 800-meter, Linsly’s 4×200 boys relay team of Justin Heckman, Lucca Troullos, Ramello Derr and Siwoo Kim won gold, Brooke’s Gavin Scott won the 1600-meter with a new meet record of 4:34.33, Oak Glen’s Orien Bone won the shot put, and Union Local’s Daniel Goodson won the discus.

For the girls, Union Local’s Pazeley Whiteley won the 200-meter, Oak Glen’s Lacey Cameron won the 1600-meter, River’s 4×100-meter relay team of Kara Miller, Ashley Miller, Brayleigh Trifonoff and Carleigh Trifonoff, and their 4×102.5 shuttle hurdle team of Mallory Brake, Ashley Miller, Brooke Huffman and Maci Isaly each won, the latter in a meet-record time of 1:09.42. Oak Glen’s Kensington McConnachie won the girls long jump.