Thus far this spring, Hermann High School (HHS) track and field athletes have stayed close to home along Highway 19 with a meet at Bearcat Memorial Stadium back on Friday, March 20 and the Montgomery County Early Bird Invitational also held along Highway 19 at Montgomery County High School last Tuesday night.

Defending their home track, Hermann’s Bearcats topped the team standings with 95 points over Cuba (76), New Haven (52), North Callaway (47) and Chamois (32).

Hermann’s Lady Bearcats (89) were edged by North Callaway (91) in the girls team standings.

Ryker Ash led three Bearcats in the top 10 of the boys 100m dash with a winning time of 11.56 while teammates Tayven Hopkins (3rd, 12.15) and Sawyer Moore (10th, 13.14) also finished in the top 10.

Colin Nunnally led four Bearcats in the top 13 of the boys 200m dash with a third-place time of 25.59.

Blue and white runners following Nunnally included Gavyn Theissen (10th, 26.92), Luke Raterman (12th, 27.24) and Layne Bader (13th, 27.41).

Ash added to his win in the 100m dash with another first-place time of 53.36 in the boys 400m dash.

Chase Branson took the top spot in the boys 800m for the Bearcats with a winning time of 2:26.49 followed in fourth place by Eric Chorley with a time of 2:28.51.

Winning the boys 4x400m relay was the Bearcat foursome of Tayven Hopkins, Ashton Rucker, Roman Martin and Ash with a first-place time of 3:50.33.

Hermann’s 4x400m relay B team of CJ Mires, Chorley, Branson and Moore also placed third in a time of 4:14.55.

Elliot Geers (11th, 21.54m) and Layne Bader (12th, 20.36m) both narrowly missed the top 10 of the boys discus while Rucker posted a second-place throw of 29.36m in the boys javelin.

Hopkins and Rucker both cleared 1.60m in the boys high jump to place first and second respectively for the Bearcats.

Mires (3rd, 2.15m) and Raterman (5th, 1.70m) placed in the top five for Hermann in the boys pole vault.

Wining his third event on his home track, Ash led five Bearcats in the top nine of the boys long jump with a winning mark of 5.78m.

Also in the top nine among Bearcat long jumpers were Nunnally (2nd, 5.62m), Hopkins (4th, 5.37m), Martin (5th, 5.18m), Theissen (8th, 5.09m) and Moore (9th, 4.91m).

Nunnally also won the boys triple jump for Hermann with a leap of 12.42m.

Brooklyn McCurdy led six Lady Bearcats in the girls 100m dash with a third-place time of 14.48 followed closely in fourth place by Morgan Penning’s time of 14.55.

Following the Lady Bearcat duo in the girls 100m dash were Addison Hopper (10th, 15.39), Julia Groppe (13th, 16.06), Callie Borzillo (15th, 16.40) and Kylie Helmig (16th, 17.08).

Heidi Brinker led Hermann in the girls 200m dash with an eighth-place time of 32.19.

Freshman Brylie Haver led five Lady Bearcats in the top 11 of the girls 800m run with a winning time of 2:55.14 followed in second place by senior Elaina Uthlaut’s time of 2:57.15.

Also finishing behind Haver and Uthlaut were Grace Engemann (8th, 3:12.94), Fynnlee Riffle (9th, 3:12.96) and Eileen Swofford (11th, 3:17.55).

Winning the girls 4x200m relay for the Lady Bearcats in a time of 2:03.53 was the blue and white foursome of Adlee Labruyere, Olivia Heying, Erika Schutt and Brinker.

Taking second in the girls 4x400m relay for Hermann in a time of 4:44.56 was the Lady Bearcat quartet of Makayla Nicholson, Tenley McFadden, McCurdy and Schutt.

Faith Gabathuler opened her season of HHS Track and Field with a winning throw of 11.36m in the girls shot put while Katelyn Krueger also scored team points for Hermann with a seventh-place throw of 8.61m.

Also throwing for HHS in the girls shot put were Alivia Witthaus (10th, 8.29m), Alaina Powers (12th, 8.20m), Delaney Williams (14th, 7.94m), Allison Brown (17th, 7.94m), Victoria Van Booven (27th, 5.65m) and Groppe (28th, 5.60m).

Powers (1st, 29.72m), Gabathuler (2nd, 29.14m) and Krueger (4th, 25.94m) took three of the top four spots for Hermann in the girls discus.

Ashlyn Hughes also started her senior season of track and field with a winning throw of 31.38m in the girls javelin followed in the top 11 by Witthaus (2nd, 28.56m), Brown (6th, 23.18m), Van Booven (8th, 21.70m) and Williams (11th, 18.46m).

Jillian Fredrick claimed gold in the girls high jump with a winning height of 1.35m while Helmig (3rd, 2.15m), Riffle (4th, 2.00m) and Borzillo (5th, 1.85m) rounded out the top five of the girls pole vault for the Lady Bearcats.

Labruyere added a third-place leap of 8.28m in the girls triple jump and a fourth-place mark of 3.97m in the girls long jump to her earlier performances.

Last Tuesday at Montgomery County, Ash took second in the boys 200m dash with a time of 23.71 while the boys 4x200m relay team of Holden Schales, Ash, Nunnally and Moore posted a third-place time of 1:42.09 scoring six team points for Hermann in Montgomery City.

Hopkins (2nd, 1.80m) and Rucker (8th, 1.65m) scored team points for the Bearcats in the boys high jump while Ash (3rd, 5.77m) and Nunnally (7th, 5.40m) added to Hermann’s team-point total in the boys long jump.

Two Lady Bearcat relay teams placed fifth with a 4x200m time of 2:02.31 by the foursome of McFadden, McCurdy, Heying and Schutt.

Additionally, the 4x400m relay team of McCurdy, Schutt, Nicholson and McFadden also took fifth in a time of 4:52.39.

Gabathuler left Montgomery County with a silver medal for her second-place throw of 10.23m in the girls shot put while the trio of Powers (2nd, 31.55m), Gabathuler (3rd, 29.83m) and Krueger (7th, 25.88m) also added to Hermann’s team point total in the girls discus.

Hughes won the girls javelin for the Lady Bearcats with a throw of 32.40m while Witthaus added two team points with a seventh-place throw of 26.88m.

Frederick cleared 1.40m to place sixth for Hermann in the girls high jump.

Running Monday in an open meet at Union, HHS Track and Field will return to action on Tuesday, April 7 in the Owensville Open at Owensville High School’s Dutchmen Field.