Neither of Turpin’s track teams were successfully able defend their FAVC championships from the 2008 season. After two years at the top of the FAVC, the boys placed third behind Kings and a strong Walnut Hills team. The girls narrowly fell to Kings by just ten points.

One of the season’s bright spots of the evening was the 4x100m relay team consisting of Jon Risher, Kevin Comerford, Wayne Dunham, and John Denman. The team won in 43.98 seconds, remaining within striking distance of the school record. Elsewhere, Comerford narrowly missed first in the 200m dash. Sophomore Shade Whitfield placed second in the 110m high hurdles and third in the high jump. The 4x200m relay team placed second behind Walnut Hills. Turpin’s usually dominant distance team found itself in an interesting position this year. Plagued by injuries, the top three runners missed much of the season and were not competing at full health. As a result, Turpin missed the top places in nearly all of the distance running events. In the field, Derek Tucker won the pole vault clearing twelve feet. Jeff Groene and Andrew Flohr placed second and third, respectively, in the discus throw.

The girl’s distance team had many strong performances. Lauren Young and Megan Plichta grabbed the top two places in the 3200m run. Kaitlin Price won both the 1600m and 800m runs, and teammate Adrienne Grogan finished just behind Price placing second in the 800m. The 4x800m team, consisting of Young, Price, Grogan, and Alexia Yun placed first. Senior Kelly Mulrey took third place in the 200m dash, and just missed medaling in the 100m dash. The 4x100m relay team took second place behind Walnut Hills, while the 4x200m relay team finished third. In the field, Meghan Rewick, Sidnei Harmon, and Hannah Zimmerman placed third in the high jump, shotput, and pole vault, respectively.

(pictured are Price and Grogan finishing the 800m run)

Click for complete boys results
Click for complete girls results

On Friday May 8th, 2009, the Turpin Spartans battled through the elements and the competition to improve in the final week before the FAVC league meet.  Although a fierce thunderstorm delayed the meet, Turpin's athletes all remained steadfast in their meeting their goals and running with some of the best in the state of Ohio.

Turpin's Lady Spartans, who have been strong competitors throughout the season, continued to place well at the Rod Russell Invitational.  In the first event, the 4by800, Adrienne Grogan, Jillian Jaworek, Alexia Yun, and Kaitlin Price ran a strong 3200 relay and came in 2nd, right behind Mason.  After having run a powerful finishing leg of the 4by8, Senior Kaitlin Price came back in the 800 meters to take 1st place in a time of 2:21 and then helped Adrienne Grogan, Lauren Keene, and Hannah Plattner place in the 4by400 relay.  In the girl's 1600 meters, Senior Lauren Young and Junior Megan Plichta went 1-2 with respective times of 5:18 and 5:20.  Young also came back to win her 3200 meter race in a time of 11:41.  Over in the girl's shot-put, Senior Sidnei Harmon was able to place 5th with a throw of 31-06.  But the athlete who seemed to be placing everywhere for the Lady Spartans was Senior Kelly Mulrey who placed in the 100 meter run, 200 meter run, the 4by100 meter relay, and also came in 2nd in the Long Jump for Turpin.  Due to the combined efforts of all the girls, Turpin's female athletes placed 4th overall behind the strong teams of Mason, Withrow, and Wayne.

While the Turpin Guys did not fare as well as the Lady Spartans did overall, individual improvements were made which brings hope as the conference title draws near.  In the boys 4by800 relay, Alex Polivka, Joe Murray, Antony Parnigoni, and Zach Smith were able to improve Turpin's 4by8 time to a 8:37, while placing 8th.  Junior Kevin Comerford placed 7th in the 200 meter run with a time of 23.2.  Comerford came back to help try and get Turpin's 4by100 relay record with Jon Risher, Jon Denman, and Wayne Dunham.  However, the guys missed the record by one second, running a 44.5.  Over in the pole vault, Senior Derek Tucker and Sophomore Matt Olson placed 3rd and 6th, respectively, with heights of 12-06 and 10-06, also respectively.  The Spartan guys ended up placing 13th overall, but look forward to finally proving themselves at the FAVC meet this week.

After a long night of disappointment, achievement, and rain, the Turpin Spartans ended up using the Mason Rod Russell Invitational as a stepping stone for the FAVC conference meet.  As the guys look to get what will be their 3rd consecutive Cardinal title and as the girls look to win their 5th title in 6 years, every athlete knows what he or she must do in order to bring the Cardinal titles back to Turpin for the final time (due to the reallignment of FAVC next year).  Congratulations to all the Turpin athletes and supporters who weathered Mason last Friday, and good luck to all the athletes competing this Wednesday and Friday at the Little Miami FAVC meet.

Due to the postponement of Monday's qualifying races, all heats will be run as timed finals on Wednesday at Fairfield.  Running will begin 3:45pm with the 4 x 800m relay, continuing with standard order of events.  Field events will begin at 4:00pm. 

The bus to Fairfield will depart Turpin at 2:00pm.

Click for directions to Fairfield High School.

The spring sports Meet the Team event will be held March 23, 2009 at 7:00pm in the Gym.  Attendance is required!

The 2009 Track Schedule can now be found in Event Schedule. More specific meet times will be posted closer to the event when available. Also available by clicking on each individual meet is a link to the location in Google Maps. An address can be found there for use with a GPS navigation system.

In addition to the meets listed in the Event Schedule, please be aware of the following dates.

23 March: Meet The Team (7:00pm)
6-10 April: Spring Break, practice will be held in the morning
25 April: Prom
3 May: Flying Pig Marathon, fund raiser, attendance is mandatory
4-15 May: AP Exams
6-8 May: Camp Kern First Session
11-13 May: Camp Kern Second Session
13-15 May: Camp Kern Third Session