District 9 Track and Field Athletes Enjoy Strong Showing at Prestigious Butler Invitational

BUTLER, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Luke Cramer was just cleared to throw the javelin on Thursday.

The Karns City junior, who suffered a torn ACL early in the football season, didn’t pick up a javelin for the first time this year until Friday morning.

Later on Friday, Cramer stood on the highest perch on the podium, drenched by sun on a warm April afternoon at the prestigious Butler Track and Field Invitational as the winner of the event with a throw of 157 feet, 7 inches.

(Pictured above, Luke Cramer)

“It means a lot,” Cramer said. “To be able to come out and throw at the level that I did against the competition that I did at one of the most prestigious meets around her shows the ceiling for the rest of the year.”

Cramer threw eight feet farther than runner-up Andrew Gavlik of North Allegheny. His throw already puts him in the top 10 in the state in all classes.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better way to kickstart a season that already got off to pretty late start,” Cramer said.

Last year, Cramer’s best was 163-7.

Cramer was just one of several District 9 athletes who had strong showings at the Butler Invite, an event full of District 7 standouts from Class 3A in track and field and considered one of the best early litmus tests for state contenders on the western side of the state.

Union/A-C Valley had a pair of winners.

Evie Bliss captured the title in the girls javelin with a throw of 138-9. Punxsutawney’s Mary Grusky was second with a 133-6 effort and Redbank Valley’s Alivia Huffman was fourth at 127-3.

(Evie Bliss)

“We definitely represented today,” Bliss said.

Bliss, the PIAA Class 2A runner-up last year in the javelin, has already thrown 149-3 this season.

Her main goal Friday night at Butler was to hone some of her mechanics.

“It definitely makes me feel confident in my form and how I carried speed,” Bliss said. “I just went out to have fun. Every meet I learn and focus on different things. I try not to focus on the size of the meet but instead just focus on what I need to do.”

Hayden Smith did Hayden Smith things again for Union/A-C Valley, clearing 6 feet, 5 inches to easily win the high jump.

Owen Curran of North Allegheny was second at 6-3.

St. Marys’ 4×800 girls relay has already made waves this season. It made more in Butler.

The team of Lucia Hayes, Christina Frontz, Mary Defilippi and Gabby Pistner won with a time of 9 minutes, 40.32 seconds.

Cathedral Prep was second at 9:42.42.

That relay team was fifth at the Adidas Indoor Track Nationals in March.

It was a banner day for Pistner, who also got a gold medal at the meet in the 800-meter run, finishing with a time of 2:15.47.

Cam Wagner and Brayden Delp placed second and third for Redbank Valley in the shot put.

Wagner threw 47-11 and Delp 47-10 1/4.

Wagner was also second in the discus with a throw of 155-3.

Another Redbank Valley standout, Aiden Ortz, broke his own school record in the long jump.

Again.

Ortz jumped 22-10, besting his mark of 22-4, which he set on Wednesday.

It’s the second time in three days that Ortz broke his own record. He had originally snapped his mark from last year when he jumped 22-3 last week.

“It meant a lot (to do it again),” Ortz said. “It felt good going against competition that pushed me.”