Year in and year out, the fine folks at Butler High School come together to put on one of the largest and most prestigious track meets in the state — and like clockwork, they always deliver.
This year was no different, as the Butler Invitational returned to an all-day format featuring both boys and girls on Friday after splitting them into two separate meets in 2021 and 2022. The weather could not have been better for the 58th annual rendition of the event, which featured hundreds of track and field athletes from 79 schools competing for a spot on the top of the podium. In the end, the brightest stars from around the WPIAL shined once again, with several big names taking home some major hardware to add to their growing collections.
A fast-rising sophomore sprinter from New Castle, Kaevon Gardner continued to cement his status as one of the leading candidates to win the 100 meters at this year’s WPIAL championships. One week after setting a personal-best time of 10.72 while taking home first place in the 100 at the TSTCA Outdoor Championship, Gardner added another gold medal in the 100 with a time of 10.94. He also earned a second-place finish in the 200 with a time of 22.77, and a seventh-place medal in the long jump with a mark of 21-5.5.
“Last meet, I discovered warming up before a race, and I ran a 10.72,” Gardner said. “The more competition, the faster I’ll run. … Today, I was just coming to win.”
Gardner’s only adversary he could not defeat on the track was Mars senior Jacob Thompson, who beat Gardner by nearly half a second in the 200 with a time of 22.29. Thompson also doubled up with a first-place finish in the 400, clocking a time of 49.75 to beat out North Allegheny sophomore Zach Nash by 0.7 seconds. Thompson was the only boys track athlete to win multiple gold medals in individual events on the day.
Joining Thompson with a pair of individual gold medals was Hempfield junior Peyton Murray, who won first place in the shot put and the discus throw. Murray’s shot put mark of 50-10.25 and discus throw of 158-7 fell shy of his personal records, but he still had plenty to celebrate once the day was over.
“It was hard in the prelims with so many kids, but in the finals, I really pulled through,” Murray said. “I was struggling a little bit with technique, but it got better toward the end.”
Fresh off setting his personal-best mark in the 1600 at last week’s TSTCA Outdoor Championship, Moon senior Jake Puhalla added two more gold medals to his sizable collection on Friday — one in the 800, and another in the 800 relay. He chose not to compete in the 1600 while saving his energy for the other two events, and he sure needed every last ounce of it to pull off both victories in dramatic fashion.
First, Puhalla started his day by roaring back from a lengthy gap during the last leg of the 800 relay before chasing down his opponent from North East at the very last second, crossing the finish line .45 seconds in front of his foe to give the Tigers the win. The Louisville recruit then ended the night about seven hours later with a time of 1:53.11 in the 800, narrowly holding off Riverview’s Amberson Bauer with one final burst of speed just before the finish. Bauer finished in second with a time of 1:53.22.
“I really didn’t see anyone until that last 200,” Puhalla said. “I could hear him, and I could see his teammates cheering him on right behind me, so I knew he was behind me. I knew he was a really good competitor, so when I felt him coming around the last bend, I was like, ‘All right, I’m going to have to grind this one out.’ And I did.”
Elsewhere, Eden Christian’s Sean Aiken won the 1,600 in 4:20.21, while Ringgold’s Ryan Pajak took home the 3,200 crown with an impressive time of 8:58.59. Antonio Votour of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart won the 110 hurdles in 14.74, Fox Chapel’s George Tabor set a new personal record to win the long jump at 22-10.25, and Central Catholic’s Xxavier Thomas claimed the triple jump title with a personal-best mark of 44-7. North Allegheny split the boys team title with Slippery Rock Area, with both schools finishing with 49 points apiece.
Girls headliners
Since the very beginning of the season, Upper St. Clair’s Dani Prunzik and Obama Academy’s Ny’Asia Benton have proven to be head and shoulders above the competition when it comes to sprinting and hurdling, respectively.
If you needed any further proof of that, the two star seniors were happy to provide it on Friday.
One week after capturing a trio of gold medals at the TSTCA Outdoor Championship — sweeping the 100 and 200 along with a first-place finish in the 100 relay — Prunzik again swept the 100 and 200 titles at the Butler Invitational while setting a new meet record with a time of 12.07 in her preliminary heat in the 100. The Penn State recruit posted a time of 12.45 in the finals to win the 100, then she edged Indiana’s Abbie Huey with a time of 25.41 in the 200 finals at the end of the night.
Meanwhile, Benton continued to raise the bar while lowering her personal record in the 100 hurdles for the third time in the past four weeks. The Robert Morris recruit dusted the rest of the field to the tune of a first-place finish in 14.54 seconds, finishing 1.13 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor, Mt. Lebanon’s Megan Cain.
Benton, who previously notched a personal-best time of 14.71 seconds at last week’s TSTCA Outdoor Championship, is emerging as a legitimate contender to become the first City League track athlete to win a PIAA championship since Peabody’s Pierre Carr swept the 100 and 200 in 2009.
“It feels great to drop my times each weekend, and to do better,” Benton said. “I have a goal in my head to touch 14.3, so I’m kind of close.”
Speaking of star power, there are few WPIAL athletes who can match the resume of Hempfield’s Liz Tapper, who made a triumphant return to big-time competition only three months removed from a Lisfranc injury suffered during the indoor season. After sitting out the first few weeks of the season while contemplating whether or not to compete this spring, the Michigan recruit has been ramping up her competition schedule in smaller meets in recent weeks, with the goal of defending her WPIAL and PIAA titles in the shot put and discus throw in May.
Despite competing at far less than 100% while facing some stiff competition from reigning PIAA Class 2A champion Justley Sharp of Homer Center, Tapper managed to break the meet records in both of her events while taking home a pair of gold medals. The national champion discus thrower didn’t approach her personal records in either event on Friday, but her performance instilled hope that she might be healthy enough to repeat as a double champion next month.
Another meet record went down in the 3,200, where Mt. Lebanon’s Logan St. John Kletter posted an astonishing time of 10:25.58 to win by nearly 30 seconds over North Allegheny’s Eva Kynaston. St. John Kletter bested the mark of 10:28.03 set by Moon’s Mia Cochran in 2021.
In the 400, Huey brought home first place with a time of 57.75, while North Allegheny’s Wren Kucler won the 1,600 with a time of 4:55.18. Latrobe’s Brylee Bodnar won the 300 hurdles in 46.53, Eden Christian’s Lara Defazio won the long jump with a jump of 18-1.5, Franklin Regional’s Ella Evans won the high jump with a mark of 5-3, and Norwin’s Hannah Shaw won the pole vault with a mark of 11-7.
Finally, Butler crowned its lone individual champion on its home soil when senior Megan Baggetta won the triple jump for the second year in a row with a mark of 39-0. Baggetta also placed fourth in the long jump at 17-7.5.
“Winning on our home turf — I kind of feel like I should,” Baggetta said. “It feels good. I’m happy to take home two medals, especially because I don’t usually do long jump in invites.”
North Allegheny ran away with the girls team title on Friday, finishing with 89 points on the day. Mt. Lebanon finished second with 53 points and Hempfield took third with 48.
Steve is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at srotstein@unionprogress.com.
