North Adams boys win SHAC Track title

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

If you were waiting for a perfect night to have a high school track meet, then you had to look no further than last Friday night at Manchester High School. The girls and boys track teams from all the schools of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference gathered at the track around Veterans Stadium, all there to compete in the conference’s 2024 High School Track Meet. It was a huge night for the teams from Adams County, especially for the North Adams boys, who were crowned as the 2024 Boys Champions. Individually, it was a memorable evening for numerous county athletes as they took home 10 individual SHAC titles and three relay titles.

A pair from the county were named as SHAC Track Athletes of the Year, North Adams senior Cody Hesler and Peebles senior Payton Johnson, both of whom will be heavy favorites to make appearances at Jesse Owens Stadium in Columbus for the OHSAA State Meet. On Friday night, Hesler won the Boys 100M, 200M, 400M and was one-fourth of the winning Boys 4 x 400 squad. Johnson was the champion of the Girls 100M, 200M and Long Jump.