The Wildcat Invitational was held Saturday in Lexington. Several of the top returning track athletes from Kentucky competed at the Nutter Fieldhouse to demonstrate their early season conditioning. The collection of talent on display helped take down four meets records.
The performer of the day was Eastern senior Ronald Barlow. He broke the Wildcat Invitational record in both the 200m and 400m. In the process, Barlow ran under 50 seconds for the first time, running a 49.87. Lewis Dodson of Male placed second. Barlow also won the 200m in 22.78, surpassing Gerry Cooper's (duPont Manual) time of 22.84. Both Barlow and Cooper broke the previous meet record.
Defending Class A 100/200 champion Derrick Stallworth (Fort Campbell) won the 60m dash in a record 7.04 seconds. He beat Justin Green (Male) by .02 of one second. Brian Long (St. Xavier) ran a personal best in the 2-mile with a 9:23, winning the race by over 30 seconds. Aundreas Lopez (John Hardin) went under 2:00 to win the 800m run.
On the girls' side, Butler already has super sophomore Chelsea Brown, but it looks like she could have competition within her own team. Sophomore Tiffany Rogers won the 60m dash in a meet record 7.83 seconds. She finished second in the 200m, behind teammate Brown. Brown won the 200m and 400m, running a 26.49 and a 59.62, respectively.
Teammates battled it out again in the 800m run. duPont Manual juniors Mary Grace Pellegrini and Colleen Campbell went 1-2. Pellegrini ran a 2:21, surpassing Campbell by one second.
Laura Steinmetz (Paul Dunbar) won the girls 1-mile in 5:21, beating freshmen Anna Bostrom (Woodford) and Maggie Mattingly (John Hardin). Katelyn Gray (Harrison County) won the 60m hurdles to follow up her victory at the Panther Indoor Games last week.