PENDLETON—Three wins for senior Parker Jones and first place finishes in the distance events for sophomore Luke Upton helped pave the way for the Arabians track team to win the Pendleton Heights boys invitational for the first time in more than a decade.
Pendleton Heights finished with 127 points, 10 better than Mt. Vernon and 21 more than Anderson, which edged the Arabians at the county meet a week ago.
The Lapel boys placed sixth with 35 points.
Upton picked up wins in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs, but it was a stirring comeback in the 4×800 relay race led by Jones that was the highlight of the night.
Trailing by 13 seconds when he was handed the baton, Jones ran down the Rushville team and boosted he and his relay teammates — Wren Parker, Jayden Wenning and Caleb Martin — to victory.
Parker Jones also held off his younger brother, Milan, in the 800 by .07 seconds to give the Arabians a 1-2 finish in the event. The brothers also teamed with Thomas Quiroga and Brody Hogan to claim the 4×400 relay event.
Senior Payton Huth recorded the lone field event victory for the Arabians when he cleared 12 feet, six inches in the pole vault. Senior Dawson Farrer recorded runner-up finishes in both the discus and the shot-put events.
Other top finishers for the Arabians included Hogan with a second-place in the 300 hurdles; Quiroga fourth in the 400; Martin fourth in the 3,200; and Huth, Dawson Miller, Payton Burmeister and Jordan Kirkpatrick fifth in the 4×100.
The Bulldogs picked up one event victory as senior Hunter Loller repeated his county championship with a win in the 400, edging Elijah Merida of Anderson by .09 seconds. Lapel recorded a trio of runner-up finishes with Jakob Addington in the 800, Luke Combs in the 1,600, and Dawson Ayers in the long jump. Jesse McCurdy added a fifth-place finish in the 3,200.
