North Allegheny’s Ayden Owens off to fast start
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Thursday, April 26, 2018 | 11:00 PM
Ayden Owens has come away with victories in as many track and field events as you can think of year round.
The North Allegheny senior and Southern California commit demonstrated that by earning MVP honors at the Butler Invitational on April 20. Owens won all three of his individual events — the 110-meter hurdles, long jump and 200-meter dash — and ran a leg of the winning 1,600-meter relay with Zach Ehling, Dan McGoey and Jono Pelusi.
“It's definitely a confidence-booster heading into bigger meets coming up,” Owens said. “It feels good to go against different competition early in the season. We don't go to many invitationals.”
What Owens is trying to do during his senior season is knock down some of his big-picture goals. One that Owens took a crack at was having a bounce-back meet at the Penn Relays, which took place last week.
Competing against a worldwide field, Owens placed 10th last year in the 400 hurdles, with a time of 55.26 seconds.
“Sometimes you need to go to a meet and not compete as well,” Owens said. “There's always something you're not going to have your best at the meet. At the Butler Invite, my high hurdle race could have been better. It lets me focus and, watching tape, I could see where I could improve and attack those things that caused me to run slowly that day.”
As an entire program, North Allegheny has piled up plenty of success. Both the boys and girls squads qualified for the WPIAL team playoffs. The Tigers' boys team finished as section champions.
At the Butler Invitational, Casey Burton was the top scorer for North Allegheny's girls team, placing second in the 100 and placing third in the long jump and 200. Clara Savchik also won the 3,200. Owens hopes the Penn Relays will be another memorable road on his farewell tour.
Last season, he placed in three events at the PIAA championship meet, winning the 110 and 300 hurdles. Owens, who set the state record in the 110 hurdles with a time of 13.76 seconds, would like to replicate his success.
Josh Rizzo is a freelance writer.
Tags: North Allegheny
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