By JIM WALKER

Tribune Sports Editor

There was no surprise here.

With the times and distances heading into Saturday’s Ironton Invitational, it was pretty much agreed the favorites were the Gallipolis Blue Devils.

And Gallipolis made it a ho-hum day as they rolled to the meet team championship by racking up 164.5 points. The Blue Devils finished first in 10 events.

Fairland was the runner-up with 127 points followed by Waverly with 93 and Ironton had 70.

Portsmouth was fifth at 52, Wheelersburg had 49, Chesapeake and Rock Hill 35each, and South Point 27.

“Gallipolis had a good team. They were district champs last year (Division II) and we knew they had a lot of guys back so they were going to be strong,” said Ironton coach Greg Cronacher.

With three key members of the team on a spring trip to Costa Rica with the Spanish class, Ironton’s Tres Wilks stepped up and finished second in the 100-meter dash, third in the 200 and ran a leg on the third-place 400-meter relay team.

Cronacher had mixed emotions about his team performance, but he was more upbeat than he expected.

“We had a lot of guys step up who were pretty much untested coming in,” said Cronacher.

“On the negative side, we’re further behind at this stage than we have ever been, but on the positive side we know once we get in shape we’re going to be better. And getting some of those guys who were missing today should help a lot.”

Fairland’s Raine Wireman won the 800 and Aaron Adkins claimed the 110 hurdles race while finishing second in the 300 hurdles.

Ironton will run Tuesday at South Point in a quad meet.

Ironton Invitational

Team Scores

1, Gallipolis 164.5; 2, Fairland 127; 3, Waverly 93; 4, Ironton 70; 5, Portsmouth 52; 6, Wheelersburg 49; 7, Chesapeake, Rock Hill 35; 9, South Point 27.

Field Events

Shot Put: 1, Dyke (W) 54-9; 2, Pruitt (F) 42-2; 3, Reinhardt (Wh) 40-10.5; 4, Noble(Ch) 39-6.75; 5, McCoy (Ch) 39-3.5; 6, Gad (F) 39-3.5; 7, Hall (SP) 37-11.25; 8, Brown (P) 35-11.5.

Discus: 1, Dyke (W) 142-5; 2, Golden (G) 132-1; 3, Hudgel (Wh) 118-10; 4, Kirkpatrick (RH) 117-6; 5, Conkey (Wh) 111-6; 6, Zirkle (F) 108-2; 7, Brown (P) 107-4; 8, Banaei (Ch) 106-1.

High Jump: 1, Campbell (G) 5-6; 2, Smith (F) 5-6; 3, Holdren (W) 5-4; 4, Davis (W) 5-4; 5,Craft (G) 5-2; 6, Mace (Ir) 5-2; 7, Nelson (F) 5-0; 8, Lewis (Wh) 5-0.

Long Jump: 1, Campbell (G) 20-1; 2, Campbell (SP) 19-5.5; 3, Dalton (RH) 18-7.5; 4, Miller (RH) 18-4.5; 5, Mace (Ir) 18-3; 6, Allison (G) 18-0; 7, Nelson (F) 17-11.5; 8, Leatherwood (W) 17-10.5

Pole Vault: 1, Craft (G) 10-6; 2, Bishop (F) 10-0; 3, Nyland (F) 8-6; 4, Workman (Ch) 8-6; 5, McCain (Wh) 8-6; 6, Jenkins (Wh) 8-0; 7, Allison (G) 8-0.

Running Events

100M Dash: 1, Wilson (G) 11.3; 2, Wilks (Ir) 11.6; 3, Campbell (SP) 11.6; 4, Mitchell (SP) 11.7; 5, Goff (Ga) 11.7; 6, Dailey (F) 12.3; 7, Miller (RH) 12.7; 8, Wilds (RH) 12.9.

200M Dash: 1, Wilson (G) 23.6; 2, Whitley (P) 24.0; 3, Wilks (Ir) 24.1; 4, Goff (G) 25.2; 5, Lewis (Wh) 25.9; 6, Davis (W) 26.3; 7, Gilbert (W) 26.5; 8, O’Brien (Wh) 27.0.

400M Dash: 1, Royster (P) 53.1; 2, Moore (G) 54.4; 3, Davis (W) 56.2; 4, Moritz (Ir) 56.3; 5, Pinson (Ch) 56.4; 6, Burks (F) 59.3; 7, Kasey (G) 1:00.1; 8, McDowell (F) 1:01.3.

800M Run: 1, Wireman (F) 2:08.8; 2, Saunders (W) 2:09.8; 3, Porter (P) 2:11.9; 4, Stumbo (Ir) 2:12.9; 5, Warner (G) 2:14.2; 6, Lawson (P) 2:18.1; 7, Moritz (Ir) 2:19.5; 8, Rowe (F) 2:21.0.

1600M Run: 1, Watts (G) 4:37.6; 2, Reeves (Ir) 4:51.0; 3, Mattie (F) 4:56.7; 4, Wireman (F) 4:59.4; 5, Stumbo (Ir) 5:00.5; 6, Warner (G) 5:02.5; 7, Kammler (P) 5:14.3; 8, Pack (W) 5:18.2

3200M Run: 1, Watts (G) 10:27.5; 2, Mattie (F) 10:41.7; 3, Reeves (Ir) 10:43.4; 4, Stewart (F) 11:14.6; 5, Sattler (W) 11:19.1; 6, Conley (Wh) 11:30.0; 7, Kammler (P) 11:38.3; 8, Lilly (W) 12:01.1.

110M Hurdles: 1, Adkins (F) 16.8; 2, Holden(W) 16.9; 3, Caldwell (Ir) 16.9; 4, Smith (F) 17.6; 5, Clagg (Ch) 18.0; 6, Maxfield (Wh) 18.8; 7, Chabot (P) 18.8.

300M Hurdles: 1, Caldwell (G) 42.2; 2, Adkins (F) 44.4; 3, Smith (F) 44.8; 4, Holden (W) 45.7; 5, Lewis (Wh) 46.0; 6, Lucas (Ch) 47.6; 7, Craft (G) 47.9; 8, Brown (W) 48.3.

Relay Events

4×100: 1, Gallipolis 45.5; 2, Rock Hill 47.0; 3, South Point 47.5; 4, Chesapeake 47.8; 5, Waverly 48.6; 6, Ironton 49.2; 7, Wheelersburg 50.0; 8, Fairland 50.0.

4×200: 1, Gallipolis 1:34.4; 2, Rock Hill 1:39.2; 3, Portsmouth 1:39.5; 4, Ironton 1:40.1; 5, Chesapeake 1:40.2;6, Waverly 1:41.9; 7, Fairland 1:42.0; 8, Wheelersburg 1:434.1.

4×400: 1, Portsmouth 3:39.5; 2, Gallipolis 3:40.7; 3, Ironton 3:47.7; 4. Waverly 4:03.0; 5, Fairland 4:04.0; 6, Gallipolis B 4:09.9; 7, Wheelersburg 4:15.7; 8, Fairland B 4:39.2.

4×800: 1, Waverly 8:46.6; 2, Fairland 8:47.5; 3, Gallipolis 8:55.1; 4, Ironton 10:20.8; 5, Wheelersburg 10:23.3; 6, Fairland B 10:24.4; 7, Gallipolis B 11:02.8.