Photo by Nick Henthorn Buckeye Local, Meadowdale and Thurgood Marshall compete at the Dick Dei Track Classic on Saturday.

WHEELING — The Dick Dei Track Classic brought together talented teams from three states for an all-day competition Saturday, and while out-of-town teams did get to show their stuff, many local athletes also shined amidst an expanded field.

With more than 20 teams converging on Wheeling Park High School, it was Olentangy Liberty who came out on top in both boys and girls competition Saturday, taking first place in team scoring on both sides.

Wheeling Park’s boys finished eighth, Weir 11th, Union Local 14th, Shadyside 16th, Magnolia 17th and Brooke 18th. On the girls’ side, Wheeling Park finished fourth, Buckeye Local sixth and Weirth eighth.

Ohio Valley athletes took home several gold medals in individual events.

Union Local’s Johnny Sabinski placed first in both the discus and shot put, winning the discus with a 163’9 throw, and getting the gold in shot put with a 57’1 toss.

“It’s definitely not the performance I wanted, but just to come out here against great competition and still pull off the win is great,” Sabinski said.

The Jet senior had competed in the Porterfield Invitational just the day prior, setting a stadium and meet record in the shot put less than 24 hours before taking to the Dick Dei Classic.

Though he swept the boys’ throwing events, the Louisville University commit had seen better performances from himself.

“It probably wasn’t the best idea to throw two meets back-to-back,” Sabinski said.

Buckeye Local’s Pam Kandrach finished first in the girls’ discus with a 115’9- a personal record- while also finishing in second in the shot put with a 37’7.

The Panthers’ Brynn McKeever came in second in the 100-meter dash, crossing the finish line in 12.57 seconds, and came in third in the 200-meter in 26.18 seconds.

Jenna DelVecchio came in second in the 100-meter hurdles, setting a new personal record- and new school record- with a time of 15.80 seconds.

“Overall today I think our team did really well,” Buckeye Local boys track coach Byron Mayers said. “We knew coming into this meet that we were going to see some of the top talent in the tri-state area, so this was a good opportunity for our girls and our boys to come in and see some high-level competition. I think our athletes came and they met that challenge today.”

“We did have some girls place well, first and second in some events, and as for the boys, we didn’t place but we did see several PR’s for the season, which was a plus moving into the bulk of our season we’re coming up on.”

Wheeling Park sported two champions, Mykel Davis winning the boys high jump and Jillian Huffman winning the girls high jump.

Davis cleared the competition by clearing a 6’10, a personal record for the senior who got the gold on his home track, and with all eyes on him as he continued on unopposed for some time after the second-place finish was stymied at 6’6.

“I was feeling good,” Davis said. “The people around me really get me going, the slow clap definitely gets me going. I went on a drought though, I think it was around 6-2, and I had to pull myself together and get it done.”

The jump tied a Wheeling Park school record.

“This year my PR was 6-6, last year it was 6-7,” Davis said. “To finally get to 6-10, put my name in the record books; I like that a lot.”

Huffman secured her spot atop the podium with a 5’0 jump, matching her personal record.

“I think I’m getting better throughout the season,” Huffman said. “Every meet I’ve been consistently gett 5-foot, and that’s better than last year. I just hope I keep doing better at the next meets to come.”

“It was definitely great to take first at this meet with it being at my home track, I just thought that was really nice.”

Wheeling Park had other competitors finish in the top-three of their respective events- K’Lyn Neider finished third in the 300-meter hurdles with a personal record-47.79 second time. Lily Hanna finished right behind her in fourth.

Park also excelled in Saturday’s relays. The Patriots boys placed second in the 4×100-meter, the team of Brennan Wack, Mykel Davis, Trent Simon and Owen Dobrzynski Hines coming in second at 44.64 seconds.

Michael Neider, Jordan Beck-James, Trent Simon and Xavier Neider came in third in the 4×110-meter shuttle hurdle relays, the Patriots team finishing in 1:04.17.

The girls’ 4×800-meter relay team of McKenna Guthoerl, Paige Hinebaugh, Katie Patticord and Katelyn Smith finished third in 11:01.07.

Park’s girls also finished third in the 4×102.5-meter shuttle hurdle relays, the team of K’Lyn Neider, Ra’myah Askerneese, Molly Brinkley and Lily Hanna finishing in third with a time of 1:09.36.

Weir had their own relay success, their girls team finishing just ahead of Park in the 4×102.5-meter shuttle hurdles with a second-place run, the team of Maleea Faulks, Kiana Luevano, Myleigh Clevenger and Maleigha Stromile finishing in 1:09.30.

Weir had multiple individuals pull off noteworthy performances too. Devan Colson PR’d in the boys 100-meter dash, securing a third-place finish with a time of 11.35 seconds. Colson also PR’d in the 200-meter, finishing fifth in 23.18 seconds.

Mea Kaufman brought home a third-place finish for the Red Riders in the girls 400-meter dash, completing the stretch in 1:03.73.

“I would say the girls performed beyond expectations today,” Weir girls coach Jeff Lewis said. “We knew about the caliber of competition we were going up against, that’s the reason we came here. In several events we PR’d, I was saying before today that this is what the girls needed.

“We’re almost halfway through the season, and as we prep and get ready for some other big competitions- we’re going to the Shadyside Relays next week, OVAC’s is a few weeks after that, then regionals- this is what we needed as we prepare for the last home stretch of the season. I’m very proud of all the girls today and their efforts.”

Magnolia’s Landen Davis came in second in the 3200-meter run, crossing the finish line in 9:52.83, a personal record.

Shadyside’s Nathan Booth came away with a personal record and a second-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles, coming around in 14.46 seconds.