By MIKE MARSEE

Contributing Writer

HARRODSBURG — Lleyton Penn of Mercer County broke a 26-year-old meet record in the shot put Saturday at AJ’s Heart of the Bluegrass, the area’s largest and longest-running track and field meet.

Andrew Hardwick of Boyle County and Lindsay Jessie of Mercer also won individual events in a strong field of 32 teams at Alvis Johnson Field.

Penn, the defending Class 2A champion in the boys shot put, won that event Saturday with a throw of 57 feet, 1 inch, besting the meet record of 55-10¾ set in 1997 by Bernard Jackson of St. Xavier.

Hardwick won the boys discus with a throw of 148-1, edging Boyle teammate and runner-up Cooper Brummett, the defending Class 2A champion, by 17 inches. Hardwick also finished second in the shot put at 52-11¾.

Jessie, who was second in the Class 2A girls discus at last year’s state meet, won that event Saturday with a throw of 112-8. She was also third in the girls shot put at 33-9½.

The Mercer boys and girls, both of whom won Class 2A team championships last year, finished fourth and seventh, respectively, in the team standings Saturday. Boyle was ninth in the boys team standings.

Other second-place finishers from area schools included: Emmanuel Dut of Danville Christian in the boys 400, Beau Brown of Mercer in the boys 200, Thaddeus Mays of Mercer in the boys triple jump, Jai Maria Piazza of Mercer in the girls 100 hurdles and Ralasia Piazza of Mercer in the girls triple jump.

Other third-place finishers from area schools included: Brown in the boys 100, Victoria Inmon of Danville Christian in the girls 400 and Ralasia Piazza in the girls high jump.

DuPont Manual swept the boys and girls team championships in the 36th annual Heart of the Bluegrass, which is expected to be the only local invitational meet this season.