Prep Track & Field: Boyle County boys edge Danville to win own invitational

The Boyle County boys needed every last point they could muster Friday night.
The Rebels won the 1,600-meter relay, the last event of the night, and that was just enough as they edged Danville 109-108.5 to win the Boyle County Invitational.
“It was all down to that last race, so I just left it all out there,”Ã?¿said Boyle’s Nick Love, who was part of one school record and three relay wins Friday. “That was my first night running (the 1,600 relay), and we got first. It was just a really great night.”
Boyle won just three events Friday, but scored points in just about every event.
Love teamed with Cody Coffey, William Harris and Tommy Hastings to break their own school record in the 800 relay with a time of 1 minute, 32.65 seconds.
Coffey, Love, Lloyd Hall and Hastings ran their best time in winning the 400 relay, and Love, Coffey, Taylor Jameson and Alex Svecke had their best time in winning the 1,600 relay.
Coffey, who also took second in the 200, said it was an unusually strong day for the relays.
“Usually we don’t get both (400 and 800) relays down, but today everything went smooth,” he said. “And then we posted our best time in the 1,600 relay.”
Boyle showed depth Friday, scoring in 14 of 18 events. The Rebels also got a runner-up finish from Cody Cooper in the high jump.
Danville got wins from Marcus Brown in the 100 and 200, and Jawan Grey in the long jump. Max Ray took second in four events.
“We’re not a deep team, and we have to perform at the highest level in every event that we enter, and (depth) cost us tonight,”Ã?¿Danville coach Chris Verhoven said. “Marcus was outstanding, Tryston Ford stepped it up. Two seniors who are really performing well at the end of the year.”
Danville actually led Boyle by 3.5 points going into the final race. The team of Karl Hempel, Matt Wagner, Chase Berry and Cole Steber finished fourth in the 1,600 relay, but Verhoven liked the fight his team showed in that final race. The same four also placed second in the 3,200 relay
“We have joked all year that our 4-by-4(00) is a solid middle school team. We’ve had to take our 4-by-8 team and force them to run the 4-by-4. Tonight was the first team we’ve had the traditional, ‘Hey, the meet’s going to come down to the mile relay,’”Ã?¿he said. “I couldn’t be more proud of Matt Wagner. He ran cross country for me and had that thinking that he doesn’t know how to run track. He asked to run the 400 earlier this year, and he has worked on his form and his speed. Tonight when he ran that race he showed how competitive he is.
“I’m proud of my team. We’ve had three invitationals in the past three weeks, and we won two and came in second by a point-and-a-half.”
Danville was sixth when Wagner got the baton for the third leg and he quickly passed two runners, and Berry kept the Ads in that position.
“I kind of felt like I didn’t go as hard as I could have in the 4-by-8(00), so I wanted to make it up to my team,”Ã?¿Wagner said. “I knew the competition was close and it would come down to this race. Coach said I needed to pass one, so I thought, ‘Well, I’ll jut pass two,’ because I caught that one right at the beginning.”
The team of Brown, Ray, Ford and Grey finished second in the 800 relay and 400 relay, and Ray was second in the 110 and 300 hurdles. Ford finished second in the triple jump.
Burgin’s Alex Beckerson put up a pair of wins, taking the 1,600 and 3,200. He also was second in the 800.
The Bulldogs went 1-2 in the discus as Travis McEachern won and Nick Beckerson was second.
Casey County’s Micah Smith won the high jump and was second in the pole vault.
Brian Carlson of Lincoln County was second in the 1,600 and 3,200 and Deon Shannon finished second in the 100.