BY YANEEK SMITH

OAK HARBOR — The Oak Harbor boys track team had a great showing on Saturday, finishing second in a Division II district tournament.

The competition was won by Perkins, who finished with 155 points. Oak Harbor was second with 106 points, followed by Central Catholic (98) and Eastwood (89).

On the girls side, Perkins won with 121 points, followed by Eastwood (113), Central Catholic (92), Oak Harbor (81) and Port Clinton (58).

The Rockets’ Hayden Buhro led the way, finishing second in both the 100-meter dash and the 200, running times of 11.08 seconds and 22.91, respectively.

Owen Miller was second in the 400 (50.18), Isiah Miller took second in the 300 hurdles (39.75) and Evan Hall finished second in the shot put (49 feet, 9.00 inches). Will Rahm had a leap of 12-03.00 in the pole vault, good for third place, T.J. Hallett was third in the 1600 in 4:43.93 and Carson Ridener was fourth in the 400 in 50.75.

The 4×100 quartet of Buhro, Isiah Miller, Jaqui Hayward and Hayden Hower won in 42.37, breaking a school record and a 20-year-old district record, the 4×400 (Ridener, Judson Overmyer, Isiah Miller, Owen Miller) relay finished second in 3:25.84, good for a personal record of three seconds. And the 4×200 unit (Overmyer, Hower, Buhro, Owen Miller) finished third, breaking a meet record behind Central Catholic and Perkins. And the 4×800 relay (Ridener, Hallett, Andrew Schwartzlander, Antoine Gonzalez) was fourth in 8:46.99.

“We were really thrilled with the overall two-day event. We needed to come back after the SBC meet and compete in this district. It’s such a tough district. Some big things happened for us,” said Oak Harbor boys coach Andy Augsburger.

“You named Hayden as the runner-up in the 100 and 200. The 4×100 broke a school record and a 20-year-old district record. That was a big performance and the 4×200 relay finished third. Central Catholic, Perkins and we broke the record, too. The 4×400 went 3:25.24, which is a 3-second PR (personal record). Evan Hall in the shot put was a district runner-up as a sophomore with a notable performance, and Owen Miller and Carson Ridener made their way to the regional meet. The 4×800 relay finished fourth and also qualified.

Carson Ridener ran a 50.75 in the 400. As a freshman, he gets to go to the regional meet. Tyler Thompson and was fifth in the 200 and just barely missed going to regionals as a freshman. Isiah Miller and Hayden Hower took those positions, but Tyler has done a tremendous job.

Andrew Schwartzlander and Antoine Gonzalez in the 800 got sixth and seventh place, respectively, to get us some points. T.J. Hallett got us some points in the 1600. Evan Hall in the shot put and Isiah Miller was the runner-up in the 300 hurdles. Zach Clune was able to finish seventh in the discus and Will Rahm was third in the pole vault.

“To score 106 points, it’s a district runner-up, and last year I think we had 76 points and were district runner-up. It shows what our district is made of. To get a runner-up trophy, you have a combined effort. They haven’t shied away from competition, they’ve embraced it.

We competed against Central at the Tiffin Columbian Invitational. We had a great competition against each other in the sprinting events.”

It’s been a work in progress for the Rockets.

“It was a very good showing for the team, the whole team, boys and girls. We work together extremely well,” said Augsburger. “We’ve been pushing each other together in the weight room. This is the time of the year where you want it to pay off. They’ve practiced extremely hard. It was total team effort.

“We hosted the meet, and we had a lot of people from Oak Harbor and the boosters, we were very, very happy. I’ve heard that people were happy competing at Oak Harbor. That says a lot about our community, and the boosters and the people helping out, the support we had from the community.”

For the girls, Amelia Mizelle won the 100 hurdles in 15.48 and took third in the 300 hurdles in 47.55. Ally Garner was second in the long jump (16-00.25), Skyler Turner took second in the 800 (2:30.85), Tyler McKitrick placed second in the 100 (12.61), Logan Wagner was third in the 800 (2:31.00) and Abby Schiller took fourth in the pole vault (8-09.00).

Oak Harbor’s 4×800 relay team was third in 10:46.29 and two other relay teams — the 4×100 and the 4×400 — both placed fourth.

Port Clinton saw three girls advance in four events. Kami Periat was second in the 400 (1:01.77), Alliyah Wharton was third in the high jump (5-00.00) and Maddie Wiechman was fourth in the 1600 (5:54.76) and fourth in the 3200 (13:31.35), respectively. Port Clinton’s 4×100 relay team qualified, taking second in 49.49.

“It wasn’t one of those huge years, but our girls went out there and found places to score and competed really hard,” said Oak Harbor girls coach John McKitrick. “It’s one of those things where we had to piece things together and figure things out. I think we graduated a kid from all 17 events. The kids were able to advance in nine different events.

“Amelia was the district champion and had an incredible year. She’s running faster than she did last year. There are a lot of great hurdlers out there, and she’s probably about 0.3 or 0.4 faster than last year. She’s knocking on Jeanie Osborne’s regional record.”

As it is with the boys side, the district is very competitive.

“It’s incredible, the district is tough enough. Our district is kind of like a regional meet in a lot of ways, we say, if you can get out of our district, you can make it to state. These kids should be looking at the next step. Rylee is sitting second in the 100, there are a ton of kids right there. Our 4×100 and 4×400 have chances that they could get out. A lot of the kids that are going to regionals, it’s their first time.”

Danbury, which competed at Gibsonburg in a Div. III district, saw four athletes — two girls and two boys — advance to regionals.

Shana Marie Richard finished third in the 100 hurdles in 16.37 and Katelynee Bergman was third in the 400 in 1:02.52. On the boys side, Cade McCarthy took third in the 300 hurdles in 44.82 and Bradley Murray was third in the 800 in 2:06.23.