The Okaw Valley Conference track meet at Sullivan on Monday was a a rare beautiful day for a track meet and the Lady Raiders made the most of it, while the rest of the Shelby Area teams battled to finish ahead of each other among the rank and file teams.

Central A & M (122 points) won the girls meet by 43 points over second place Tolono (79). Shelbyville, in ninth place (22 points), was able to finish ahead of the eleventh place Sullivan-Okaw Valley girls squad (16 points).

In the boys meet, Monticello (142) edged out Tuscola (136) for first place, while the Shelbyville Rams finished in fourth (60), 20 points back of third-place Unity (80), but just ahead of fifth-place Central A & M (54) and four spots ahead of eighth-place Sullivan-Okaw Valley (15).

“I thought we ran decent even though our goal was to finish third,” said Shelbyville Ram coach Kevin Kramer. “Our 4x100 relay, 4x200 relay and 4x400 relay all cut big chunks off their best times. Zach Duck in the triple jump, Dylan Sarver in the long jump, Austin Smith in the high jump, Ryan Brown in the 3200, Shaun Nibbe in the mile and Clayton Baker in the 800 meters all had their best times of the season.”

“In the 4x2 relay we were DQ’d. We finished a close third (1:35.03) with our best time by two seconds. They said we had a foul on the exchange. We had a video that showed we didn’t. I protested it, but they said they had to go by what the exchange judge said.”

Central A & M girls won seven of the 18 events and had six double-winners, while Meridian s Lauren Doyle was the only three-way OVC champ. Doyle won the 100 (12.71) and 200 (26.18) meter dashes, as well as the long jump, by a half-inch (17-2) out-dueling A & M’s Lauren Adcock (17-1.5) in the battle to see who would be the lone 3-way individual champ.

Adcock still was part of three titles. She won the 800 meters (2:23.39) and the quarter (1:00.0) to be on of the Raiders double-champs, and also was part of the winning A & M 1600 relay (4:10.81), along with Tessa Duncan, Emily Miller, and Ashley Dial.

Reagan Aylmer also was a double-champ, again, sweeping the distance races. She won the mile (5:25.06) and the 2-mile (12:20.60).

The other Raider 2-title winner was Megan Stringer. She is the reigning Class A state champ in the discus and she out-threw that mark on Monday, winning the discus with a throw of 126 feet, six inches. Stringer also won the 100 hurdles (15.75) and placed second in the 300 hurdles (48.38) and fourth in the long jump (16.75).

The Raiders also had champion runner-ups in the 2-mile by Kim Choatie (12:40.10) and Medler in the triple jump (32-8).

The best Shelbyville finish was the second place mark in the pole vault by Anna Oldham (7-0). Next to that, the best Shelby marks were fourth place finishes. Laura Jesse was fourth in the 2-mile (13:24.52), Becca Jefferies was fourth in the 100 hurdles (17.77) and the 3200 relay (Jackie Eberspacher, Erin Yockey, Emily Karraker, Carisa Wilson) was fourth (11:27.0).

Sullivan-Okaw Valley had a singular standout, Lauren Taylor, who third in the 200 meters (27.54), third in the long jump (16.5), a new school record, and placed fourth in the quarter (1:02.80),

All three male Shelby Area teams were shut out of conference championships. The best results were silver for each school.

Shelbyville captured second in the 4x100 relay. Zach Duck, Kent England, Tom Shoaff and Connor McNeely-Short ran a 45.60 time as runner-ups to Monticello (44.46). Ryan Brown finished second in the 2-mile (10:27.25), behind Meridian’s distance star Mike Crawley (10:25.68).

Shelbyville also had enough third place finishes to push ahead of A & M’s team score. Cory Tripp was third in the shot (44-0) and discus (136-9), Austin Smith was third in the high jump (5-10), Levi Pruemer was third in the pole vault (11-0) and the 4x4 relay of Shoaff, England, Buhrmester and McNeely-Short placed third (3:34.11).