Canon-McMillan’s Taylor, Trinity’s Sammel lead contingent seeking repeats at County meet
Canon-McMillan’s Aaron Taylor was already one of the best hurdlers in the state and now he can say he’s breaking records held by Olympians.
Taylor’s time 37.13 beat former North Allegheny standout Ayden Owens’ time for a new Butler Invitational record Saturday. Owens competed in the decathlon for Puerto Rico at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Breaking an Olympian’s record is a pretty good way to enter the Washington-Greene County meet, where he won three individual events last year.
Alongside Trinity’s Ella Sammel, he headlines a group of athletes seeking repeat victories Friday at Canon-McMillan’s AHN Field in Canonsburg.
“Aaron is a kid that continues to work as hard as possible,” Canon-McMillan track coach Lance Vallee said. “Everything that he has gotten record-wise he’s earned. Beating Ayden Owens’ time is a pretty special record to break. When you get to say you broke a record that an Olympian held, that puts you up there. But he’s very humble. He told me he was just trying to run a good race and the next thing you know his time was great.”
Taylor, a Villanova recruit, won the 110 hurdles, 300 hurdles, 200 dash and was the anchor on Canon-McMillan’s 1,600 relay team at the County meet last year. He went on to earn a second-place finish in the 300 hurdles and a fifth place in the 110 hurdles at the PIAA meet in Shippensburg.
Taylor is not the only returning athlete that won three events.
Sammel won three different events last year. She swept the two hurdle events and won the high jump. Sammel was the lone high jumper to clear five feet, finishing at 5 feet, 4 inches and won the 300 hurdles by nearly three seconds.
She recently broke her own school record with a jump of 5 feet, 7.5 inches and is one of the top high jumpers in the WPIAL and state.
Joining Taylor as a winner of multiple events on the boys side is Trinity’s Devin Junko.
Junko, a junior, won the 1,600 and 3,200 runs. He did so comfortably, winning the 1,600 by four seconds and 3,200 by nearly eight seconds.
California’s Carter Kent, a junior, won the 800 run and Beth-Center’s Deakyn DeHoet will look to repeat in the 100 dash. DeHoet, a senior, is a student at Jefferson-Morgan, but co-ops with Beth-Center for track. He also plays baseball in the spring for Jefferson-Morgan.
One standout for Canon-McMillan, pole vaulter Connor Rolek, is not competing at the County meet, but for good reason. He received an invite to compete at the Penn Relays at the University of Pennsylvania this weekend.
Rolek won the high jump at the County meet last year.
“Washington-County coaches is a big meet, and you want to do well, but being the best pole vaulter in Washington and Greene County and being the best pole vaulter in the country are two different things,” Vallee said. “He has cleared 16 feet and four and three quarters, so he’s ranked third going into the Penn Relays with people from all over the United States. That’s a great opportunity for him as far as recruiting exposure and everything in between.”
Another returning champ for Canon-McMillan is Tyler Marciak, a junior, who won the javelin last year. He edged his Big Macs teammate Brayden Dexter by two feet.
“Both of those guys are throwing well,” Vallee said. “Tyler just set his personal best this past week up at Slippery Rock throwing 174 feet and Brayden is right there with him in the 160’s. I expect both of them to do well.”
On the girls side there are six athletes with a chance to repeat.
Peters Township’s Madison Fellin won the 3,200 run as a freshman.
Chartiers-Houston junior Brooklyn Havelka won discus. Fort Cherry, which won the overall team title for the first time, has three returning individual champions. Julie Klose, a junior, won shot put, Sophia Holmes took javelin and fellow senior Bella Bianchini was victorious in the 800 run.