The National Trail Boys Track team competed on Tuesday, May 14th, and Saturday May 18th in the Division 3 Southwest District Meet at Piqua High School. The Southwest district was particularly strong this year, which made qualifying to the finals on Saturday, extremely difficult. In most events, only the top 8 times would qualify. Field events are contested as finals on the day that they competed. On Tuesday, Josh Welz got the team started off right, by throwing 135-0, finishing 4th, and qualifying to the regional meet. On the Track, the relay teams let the way for the Blazers with the 4 x 100, 4 x 200, and 4 x 400 Meter relay teams all qualifying for the finals on Saturday. The 4 x 200 team of Jody Wintrow (Sophomore), Korbin Sullivan (Freshman), Jonah Brinkley (Freshman), and Tayten Reynolds (Sophomore) qualified 7th with a time of 1:37.22. We have had several different groups run in the 4 x 200, but this group of 4 have had the most entries in the event this year. Going into the final, we knew they would need to run well to make the regional. They did everything that we asked, but were edged out of the regional by a very competitive field. The 4 x 200 team lowered their time to 1:35.72, a season’s best for this group, finishing 5th and missing out on the regional meet by a mere four tenths of a second. The next relay on the Track was the 4 x 100 relay team of Chase Ruebush (Senior), Wintrow, Brinkley, and Jamison Watts (Senior). The district meet was the first time that this group of 4 had run the event together. They qualified 6th for the final with a time of 46.78. In “come from behind” fashion in the final, they managed to lower that time to 45.56 and finish 4th place qualifying to the regional meet next week! Reynolds and Watts were right back on the Track in the open 400 meter Run. Watts won his heat by a full second, but due to times from the other 4 heats, just missed the final, finishing 9th. Reynolds Ran a personal best 53.41 and qualified 7th to the final. In the final, he again lowered his personal best to 53.32 and finished 6th. In the final event on the Track, the 4 x 400 Relay of Sullivan, Reynolds, Brinkley, and Watts again lowered their seasons best time to 3:39.46 and qualified 6th to the final. In an extremely tight race in the final, they were able to lower that season’s best time another five seconds to 3:34.19, but finished 6th, missing the 4th spot and a trip to the regional the regional meet by only 0.56 seconds. Other Notable performances were: Tucker Denlinger (Freshman) - 800 Meter Run: Tucker ran a Personal Best 2:12.81 and qualified to the final. Braydan Lee (Sophomore) - 3200 Meter Run: Braydan Lowered his Personal best to 11:18.66. 16 seconds lower than he had run all season. Full results from the district meet can be found at: https://oh.milesplit.com/meets/568346-ohsaa-division-3-district-piqua-2024/results Josh Welz and the 4 x 100 meter relay team will be competing at the SW Regional meet on Wednesday May 22nd at Troy High School. Josh will be throwing the discus at 4:30pm. Running events will begin at 6:00pm. Follow the event live at: https://finishtiming.trackscoreboard.com/meets/568365/events ...

The National Trail Girls Track team competed on Tuesday, May 14th, and Saturday May 18th in the Division 3 Southwest District Meet at Piqua High School. The competition was tough, and the weather wasn’t cooperative, but the lady Blazers still came out and competed their best in the meet. For the preliminary meet on Tuesday, in most events, only the top 8 times would qualify to the final on Saturday. Our lone qualifier for the Girls was, Senior, Gretchen Murphy in the 800 Meter run with a personal best time of 2:47.04. She the lowered that personal best to 2:46.64 in the final on Saturday but fell short of qualifying to the regional meet. Due to the number of entries, the Girls distance events were moved to finals only on Saturday. Senior, Judith Denlinger left it all on the track and set a new personal best in the 1600 Meter run with a time of 6:22.92. The district meet marks the end of the season for the Girls Track team. The coaching staff would like to thank all the parents, and athletes for a great season. We also want to say a special “Thank you” to our Seniors, Judith Denlinger, and Gretchen Murphy for their contributions to the Track Team over the past years. We wish them the best in the future. Full Results from the District Meet can be found at: https://oh.milesplit.com/meets/568346-ohsaa-division-3-district-piqua-2024/results ...

On Wednesday May 8th and Friday May 10th, the Blazer girls track team participated in the Western Ohio Athletic Conference Championships at Twin Valley South High School. The girls placed 9th out of 11 teams scoring 34 points. Scoring for the Lady Blazers were: Hannah Henderson, 4th Place, Long Jump Molli Deaton, Megan Irvin, Gretchen Murphy, and Hannah Henderson, 4th Place, 4x400 Meter Relay Taryn Rucci, Jocelyn Osborne, Sydney Whalen, and Judith Denlinger, 5th Place, 4 x 800 Meter Relay Judith Denlinger, 5th Place, 3200 Meter Run Evie Hoffman, Jaylin Hurd, Gretchen Murphy, and Hannah Henderson, 6th Place, 4x200 Meter Relay Evie Hoffman, Jaylin Hurd, Megan Irvin, and Hannah Henderson, 6th Place, 4x100 Meter Relay Sydney Whalen, 6th Place, 3200 Meter Run Kaitlyn Schweizer, 7th Place, Discus Judith Denlinger, 7th Place, 1600 Meter Run Kaitlyn Schweizer, 8th Place, Shot Put Gretchen Murphy, 8th Place, 400 Meter Run Megan Irvin, 8th Place, 300 Meter Hurdles Full results from the WOAC Meet can be found at: baumspage.com/track/woac/2024/2024 Final Results.htm The Blazer track teams will be headed to the District Preliminary meet on Tuesday May 14th at Piqua High School. Field events begin at 4:00. ...

On Wednesday May 8th and Friday May 10th, the Blazer boys track team participated in the Western Ohio Athletic Conference Championships at Twin Valley South High School. The boys team placed 6th out of 11 teams scoring 58.5 points. The boys team had several standout performances and new personal bests, but the highlights came from the 4x100 Meter relay team of Jody Wintrow, Chase Ruebush, Liam Conway, and Jonah Brinkley finishing 3rd with a season’s best time of 46.81. The 4x200 meter relay of Wintrow, Brinkley, Tayten Reynolds, and Jamison Watts broke a 22 year old school record in the preliminary meet running a 1:35.11. They ran 1:35.51 in the finals and finished 2nd only to a new WOAC record from a strong Ansonia squad. In the field, Josh Welz threw the discus 140’ 3” to be crowned as the Blazer’s only conference champion. Other scorers for the Blazers were: Jody Wintrow, 4th place, 100 Meter Dash Jody Wintrow, 4th Place, 200 Meter Dash Tayten Reynolds, 4th Place, 400 Meter Dash Korbin Sullivan, Jonah Brinkley, Tayten Reynolds, and Jamison Watts, 4th Place, 4x400 Meter relay Chase Ruebush, 6th Place, 100 Meter Dash Jamison Watts, 6th Place, 400 Meter Dash Brian Toschlog, Korbin Sullivan, Tucker Denlinger, and Braydan Lee, 6th Place, 4x800 meter relay Tucker Denlinger, 8th Place, 3200 Meter Run Killian O’Connor, 8th Place, Shot Put Tayten Reynolds, 8th Place, Long Jump Full Results can be found at: baumspage.com/track/woac/2024/2024 Final Results.htm The Blazer track teams will be headed to the District Preliminary meet on Tuesday May 14th at Piqua High School. Field events begin at 4:00. ...

After a slow (1-5) start to this season, the Blazers finally get back to five-hundred on the season. The Blazers defeated Northridge last night 4-1 to even their record at (11-11). The Blazers put up two runs in the bottom of the first when Ruebush scored on a passed ball and Cooper Lee hit his first career HR to left field. That 2-0 scored stayed true until the sixth when the Polar Bears plated one closing the gap to 2-1. NT scored two big add on runs in the bottom half of the inning with a single by Watts, a bunt single by Ruebush, and a Sac Fly RBI by Smith. Ruebush would eventually score on a double to right by Mason Leal. The Blazers were led on the bump by Braylon Coffey who went 5 strong moving his record to (3-2) on the year. Andrew Hamm picks up the 2 inning save in relief. Pitching- Coffey (WP) 5 IP, 7 H, 1 R (0 ER), 7 K, 0 BB Hamm (S) 2 IP, O H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K Offense- Watts- 2-3, R Clark- 1-3 Leal- 1-3 (2B), RBI, Lee- 1-2 (HR), R, RBI Ruebush- 1-3, 2 R, SB Vance- 1-2 Coffey- BB Smith- RBI (Sac Fly) ...

Jamison Watts pitches the 13th no hitter in school history in Monday nights 8-0 victory against Tri High (Indiana). Watts went seven innings recording fifteen strikeouts and only giving up one walk. The Blazers scored 8 runs while only recording five hits. The scoring started in the second inning when Ruebush started the inning with a hit, and Leal walked. With runners on second and third Hamm lays down a perfect squeeze bunt scoring Ruebush from third and Leal from second. The Blazers scored two more in the 4th. Ruebush again leads the inning off with a single. After a balk and a stolen base, Coffey drives in Ruebush with an RBI single. Leal later scores that inning by stealing second and third, finally scoring on a throwing error. The Blazers plate four more in the 5th highlighted by a Cooper Lee double scoring two. The Blazers are now 10-11 overall and play again Tuesday night at home against Northridge. Offensive Highlights Ruebush- 2-2, BB, 3 R, BB, 3 SB Lee- 1-3 (2B), R, 2 RBI Smith- 1-2, BB, SB, R Laird- 1-2, BB, R, SB Leal- 2 (BB), 2 R, 3 SB Coffey- RBI Hamm- 2 RBI ...