Sports are great for a lot of reasons.

Student-athletes at all levels get to experience the ups and downs of the wins and losses while also learning what it’s like to work as a team toward a goal.

At least for this scribe, the best part without question when going to cover something is not knowing what’s going to happen.

Last week was definitely interesting on several fronts with the first one being able to take in St. Albans’ Brogan Samms throwing a no-hitter against Parkersburg.

If not for a four-pitch walk to Big Red Noah Holland, the Red Dragon Samms would’ve had a perfect game.

I told him afterward that I’ve been doing this for a long time and I thought it was finally going to be the second time I ever covered a perfect game in baseball.

I had to go look it up on the OHSAA website, but it’s hard to fathom the only perfect game I ever covered came all the way back on April 11 of 2003 when I was lucky enough to see Belpre’s Tom Wolfe pull off the feat at home versus Nelsonville-York.

There’s been a lot of phenomenal efforts lately from the area, but a pair of them from last week stood out to me – Tyler Consolidated’s Brennon Miller recording 19 strikeouts in a game to break Ty Walton’s former school record and the exploits of St. Marys’ Anna Bennett from the Little Kanawha Conference track championships.

Miller got the start at home against Ravenswood, but was lifted after allowing two runs in the first inning by head man Rob Jones.

“It was a wild game going down 6-0 in the third,” admitted Jones, whose squad eventually rallied for a 7-6 walk-off win in 11 innings with Reese Davis earning the mound triumph after pitching the 10th and 11th.

“I lifted Brennon, but I told him we are coming back to you to close this thing out later so be ready.”

Silver Knight teammate Brayden Neff pitched the next two innings before Miller came back in.

“Brennon has been a workhorse for us since his freshman year on the mound,” coach Jones said of the junior, who ran out of pitches after coming back and getting the Silver Knights through nine frames.

“He has had an all-state type of year on the mound and everything came together for him Friday night. Neff hitting the game-tying homer with two outs in the bottom of the seventh allowed the extra time Brennon needed to break the strikeout record.”

Miller, who was utilizing his curveball, also throws a slider to go with his fastball.

“It just a cool experience to have,” said Miller, who got to enjoy the win with his teammates after Landon Boggs walked it off with an RBI fielder’s choice.

“When I came back in and pitched they weren’t able to touch my ball after that. Going in there I just felt different. It felt like I was going to do good and it turned out pretty good.”

Doing good is something Bennett and her teammates, no matter the sport, have grown accustomed to.

It’s said success breeds success, but that also comes with a lot of hard work.

No one has to tell that to St. Marys girls track coach Dave Davis when it comes to Bennett.

“She works really hard and it’s fantastic to watch her hard work finally pay off,” he said. “People don’t see all the work she puts in the offseason and what she does behind the scenes, and her workouts at practice everyday. They just see what she does at the meets.”

During last Friday’s LKC meet at Roane County the Blue Devil put on quite the performance, which was highlighted by a record-breaking 800 run of 2:18.37.

Bennett’s clocking eclipsed the old mark of 2:18.53 established by West Virginia University’s Alyssa Sauro back in 2022 when she was a freshman at Williamstown.

“We were really focused on that LKC record, but also being the school record was really, really impressive,” Davis added. “That was super impressive. She’s got a lot in the tank.”

The school record she broke happened to belong to former Mountaineer Maggie Drazba, who had established the mark of 2:18.55 at the regional back in 2012.

“At regionals she just kind of did what she needed to do to get ready for next week,” Davis said of Bennett sweeping the 800, 1600 and 3200 while also running a leg on the regional runner-up 4×4 team.

There’s still a few weeks left for spring sports and time will tell if anymore records go by the wayside.

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com