DOYLESTOWN — After just clipping the bar with her calf on the first attempt at breaking a school record, Smithville’s Abby Hartzler knew that she had it.

The junior quickly jogged over to coach Kristie Mahas and said, "That was crazy close. I’m getting this."

Indeed she did as Hartzler shattered her school record en route to claiming the high jump championship, highlighting the opening day of the Wayne County Athletic League Championships.

“I knew what I had to do and I knew I had it in me,” she said of that moment, just before clearing 5-feet-4¼. “I saw the video and I had the height, all I needed to do was just get my neck back and jump up a little bit more.”

Already with the win in hand, and matching her previous-best mark of 5-3, Hartzler attempted that school-record breaking jump for the second time this season. The upperclassman, who tried it late last month at the Triway Invitational, made contact with the calf of her back leg on each of her first tries before soaring over the bar.

Hartzler quickly bounced off the mat and celebrated the moment, before attempting to break the WCAL meet record, coming up just short with the bar set at 5-5¼.

Not too shabby after starting the day with misses on each of her first three heights.

“My jumps were a little iffy in the beginning, but I really got it hammered out, kept my focus and just, with the support of my teammates, really went for it,” Hartzler said. “I'm just ecstatic. I definitely had fun today. It's a meet that I'm never going to forget.”

It was the first of many highlights for the first day of the two-day event, which concludes with running finals and the remaining field events – girls long jump, pole vault, and boys high jump – Saturday at Doylestown’s Memorial Stadium.

Norwayne senior Colby Morlock took the victory in both the shot put and discus, and along with wins by Isaiah Portis (long jump) and Caleb Erhard (pole vault), helped the Bobcat boys get off to an early lead in the team standings.

Morlock opened his day with a first-place mark of 183-2 to take the discus over younger brother Dillon Morlock (160-8), before crushing the meet record in the shot twice before taking the triumph with a 62-9.

The All-Ohioan, who already entered the finals with an impressive 62-1 ½ — more than enough to take down a 41-year-old record of 61-6¾ that Smithville’s Larry Kolic accomplished in 1981— proved that he had a little left in the tank on the final toss of the day.

Following up an equally as impressive 60-10½ by Rittman’s Tyler Thompson, Colby calmly stepped up and closed out his day with the new league-meet standard.

“I had sealed the win, so I was like, 'I just have to go for one right now,'” he said. “I'm just having fun out there. I'm pretty proud of it. ... It was a good day.”

Portis wrapped up his first-place finish in the long jump in prelims, following a pair of 20-foot jumps with the eventual winner of 21-1½ in beating Rittman’s Evan Rastorfer (20-6). Erhard also had a picture-perfect day with a mark of 13-feet in taking the pole vault.

“It's hard to (do) three more jumps after you take a 15-minute break and wait for everybody else,” said Portis, who also recorded the fastest prelim time in the 100-meter dash. “It's hard to get back into it, but I was pretty comfortable after (my prelim jumps).

“This means a lot because our goal is to win the county,” he added. “It's a big thing for me to help us get to the point. This is kind of a redemption year for us to get Norwayne track back on top.”

Following in the mold of Colby, the Bobcats swept the shot and discus competitions on the girls side with Grace Sparks and Allison Morlock taking the titles. 

Sparks rallied after sitting in fourth after preliminary action, using a personal-record push of 38-6½ to take the title, with Morlock nearly matching her career-best toss from a week ago with a 114-11 in the discus.

“It looked really short and I thought I wasn't going to get it, so it was a big surprise,” Sparks said of her winning toss. “It's going really good right now, especially knowing that I can do that.”

For Allison Morlock, a pair of 114-foot tosses carried the junior to the county title.

“It's nice to know you have a throw already under your belt, but sometimes you have to get better every throw,” she said. “That's been my strategy, get a mark and keep climbing on every throw, and that's what I did and I finished with a 114-11.”

Waynedale made a clean sweep in the lone running-event finals as the Bears boys and girls 4x800-meter relay teams were winners.

The boys relay unit of Caiden Schmeltzer, Peyton Lemon, Conner Reich and Johnathan Varner used a pair of impressive runs by middle legs Lemon and Reich to take the victory in 8:30.96 over Chippewa (8:34.31) and Dalton (8:35.02).

Reich, a sophomore, was able to get the lead in his third leg and give Varner just enough room to take things home.

“The kid from Dalton passed me in the last 50, so I had to return the favor,” Reich said. “That's all I was thinking about and I ended up in first somehow.”

Alyce Yoder and Sydney Reber, Kylee Gray and Clara Sundberg combined to run their best time of the season, crossing in 10:02.07, to win their final by over 13 full seconds.

Gray was right on the shoulder of Rittman’s Caroline Kennel after getting the baton on the third leg, before passing her 50 meters in and building a nice lead for Sundberg at the anchor.

“I wanted to run my own race,” said Gray, who ran a career-best split time of 2:24.27. “She went out hard and I knew I could match that. I took it out and I was comfortable with it, so I went with it.

“That was a big PR for me and I'm really happy.”