North Allegheny’s Ayden Owens places second in pentathlon at nationals

By: HSSN Staff
Sunday, March 11, 2018 | 3:57 AM

North Allegheny’s Ayden Owens took second in the pentathlon Saturday at the New Balance Indoor Nationals, but wasn’t able to topple defending champion Kyle Garland.

Garland, a senior at Germantown Academy, accumulated 4,169 points. Owens had 3,969.

The matchup between the Pennsylvania athletes was a highlight for the high school competition at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York.

Both seniors are major college recruits with Owens headed to Southern Cal and Garland committed to Georgia.

PA goes 1-2 in the boys’ pentathlon! Kyle Garland takes the win, Ayden Owens is second! #NBNationals pic.twitter.com/H26lfuVT9M

— PennTrackXC (@PennTrackXC) March 10, 2018

They’ll compete again head to head Sunday in the 60-meter hurdles where Owens is the favorite. The semifinals are at 11:10 a.m. with the finals at 1:49 p.m.

Owens improved upon his third-place finish in the pentathlon from a year ago. He won the pentathlon hurdles (7.77 seconds) this year, placed third in the long jump (21-11¾), second in the shot put (50-9½), fifth in the high jump (6-2¾) and seventh in the 1,000 meters (3:00.97).

Garland won the long jump (23-2) and shot put (53-5½), placed second in the hurdles (7.86) and high jump (6-4), and fourth in the 1,000 meters (2:54.93). His school, Germantown Academy in Fort Washington, competes in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association rather than the PIAA.

And @PennTrackXC Kyle Garland and Ayden Owens kick off Day 2 here in the Pent, with Racewalk up next! pic.twitter.com/TzADVx6bfQ

— MileSplit NY (@MileSplitNY) March 10, 2018

Bethel Park’s James Krandel and Penn Hills’ Alex Trower each competed in the 60-meter dash preliminaries Saturday but failed to advance. Krandel was 35th (7.03 seconds) and Trower was 47th (7.13) in a 53-person field.

Butler senior Noah Beveridge will run the mile Sunday.

Chris Harlan is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at charlan@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CHarlan_Trib.

Tags: North Allegheny