STEUBENVILLE - The story wasn't as much as the competitors on the track, but the weather that surrounded them.
In weather as good as the 28th-annual Early Bird Track and Field Invitational has seen in a long time, things were good, bad, disappointing and everything in between Saturday at the Harding Track.
Being outside has helped coaches in workouts and some of the times Saturday showed the fruits of those workouts.
A year ago track and field athletes were in Under Armour gear at the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference meet in May and T-shirts and sunburns were the norm Saturday.
The Brooke girls came out of the gates strong with a team win, scoring 95 points to outdistance host Big Red by nine points and Edison by 14.
Ali Crawford was the high-point winner on the girls side, totaling 30 to lead the Bruins.
She won the 100 hurdles (15.81), 200 (27.4), finished second in the 400 (1:05.5) and teamed with Rachel Richard, Amanda Loughrie and Natalie Fowler to capture the 4x100 in 52.21.
"She did what we expected going in," Brooke coach Amanda DiMarzio said of Crawford. "She has been working really hard and worked really hard in the offseason. She did well."
Crawford finished third in the 100 hurdles, sixth in the 200 and was on the 4x100 relay team that took third a year ago at the state meet in Charleston.
The 4x200 team of Richard, Loughrie, Fowler and Erin Conaway placed second in 1:55.82.
Richard took second in the long jump (13-2), Loughrie second in the 100 (13.45), Amber Govey (a junior) second in the 3200 (12:36.0) and fourth in the 1600 (6:00.89) and Fowler second in the 200 (27.43).
Crawford and Richard are seniors, Conaway and Loughrie sophomores and Fowler a freshman.
Steubenville was led by junior Queen Elder.
She anchored the winning 4x200 squad with Toshchel Demus, Paige Phillips and Nyasha Jones (1:51.20), won the 800 (2:32.80) and partnered with Jasmine Ware, Shilyn Crawford and Demus to take second in the 4x100 (52.27).
The 4x400 quartet grabbed a victory in 4:30.0.
Big Red and Ohio State-bound senior Najee Murray won the 100 from lane 1 and teamed with Quinten Smith, Tayari Lavender and Robert Hayden to anchor the second-place 4x100 squad in 45.01.
Murray's 100 time of 11.20 edged Buckeye Local's Jordan Piergallini (11.23) and Big Red's Robert Hayden (11.32).
Cleveland Glenville dominated the boys side, scoring 124 points to beat Big Red by 31 points. Glenville won 10 of the 16 events, nine of the 12 running events.
Edison girls finished third with 81 points. Weir High was fourth (64) and Indian Creek fifth (45).
"Things went all right," Edison coach Jamie Evans said. "I'm a little disappointed in a couple of areas. I thought we could have picked up a couple more points on the girls' side.
"Our boys ran really well."
The Lady Wildcats picked up a pair of wins.
Katelyn Pollock won the high jump at 4-10 and Ashley Borsch the 300 hurdles in 50.20. Pollock also finished third in the 400 (1:05.91) and 800 (2:42.88). Borsch took second in the 100 hurdles (16.27).
Edison finished third in the 4x200 (1:55.90), the 4x400 (4:48.94) and 4x800 (12:01.41) and fourth in the 4x100 (54.87).
"To be honest with you, last year when we came in here I didn't know what to expect with our group of young girls," Evans said. "Today, I expected to come in and win it. We just came up a little bit short today, and hopefully we are going to go back to practice Monday and start to correct some of those things that we can control and try to get back into the winners circle."
Weir High's Raven Young captured the 100 (13.3). Teammate Kristen Mastrantoni won the 3200 (12:30.0) and took second in the 1600 (5:51.80). Alexis Virtue was third in the 3200 (12:40.0) and the 1600 (6:00.77). The 4x800 relay team won the event in 11:21.63 and the 4x400 relay second in 4:41.37.
Toronto's Erica Price won the long jump (14-1), Emily Price was second in the high jump (4-10) and the 4x100 finished in 56.96.
Indian Creek's Kristen Shimko won the discus (100-2) and took sixth in the shot put (27-3).
Buckeye Local's Greg Ring won the shot put (44-6). Piergallini was second in the long jump (19-1).
Brooke's Wes Rine won the high jump (5-6) and took second in the 110 hurdles (16.78).
