Butler girls capture indoor track title

Butler’s girls indoor track and field team captured the Tri-State Track and Field Coaches Association meet championship Saturday at Edinboro University.
The Golden Tornado scored 70 points in topping the 40-plus team field. Penn Hills finished second with 64 points, followed by Hempfield, Bethel Park and McDowell.
Butler’s jumpers scored 44 of the team’s 79 points. Junior Lexis Frost was the team’s lone first-place finisher, winning the triple jump.
Hannah Williams took second in the triple jump and fifth in the long jump. Meghan Studds was third in the long jump and sixth in the triple jump.
Also scoring in the jumps for the Tornado were Paige Rittelmann (second in high jump), Kennedty Evans (seventh in long jump) and Lauren Maher (sixth in high jump).
Sophomore Becky Arturo qualified for the state meet in the pole vault with a fourth-place leap of 10 feet, six inches. Ava Bonetti took eighth in the shot put.
On the track, Paige Allen finished fourth in the 60 meters. Frost was fourth in the hurdles. Alexis Swiergol seventh in the 3,000 meters and Trisha Brandt sixth in the 800 meters.
All three of Butler’s relays placed among the top four. The 4x200 relay of Jasmine Bailey, Katelyn Wetzel, Allen and Evans took third, the 4x400 unit of Bailey, Wetzel, Allen and Caitlin Baxter fourth.
The 4x800 team of Brandt, Rachel Konieczny, Vanessa Tomsey and Ashley Grooms claimed fourth as well.
Qualifying for Saturday’s state meet are Studds, Williams, Frost, Rittelmann, Arturo and Bonetti.