It’s still the Butler County Classic, but with a twist.

The event normally includes only high school track and field teams from within the borders of the county. That was the plan this year, too, when it was originally scheduled to be hosted by Freeport last Saturday.

But the forecast of heavy rain and wind forced the meet to be pushed back to Thursday, which is the beginning of the long holiday weekend. Because of this, four schools opted out of competing — Karns City, Knoch, Moniteau and Mars.

That left Butler, Seneca Valley, Slippery Rock, Freeport and North Catholic still planning to attend, but a number closer to the 412 athletes who competed last year was sought.

“(Freeport coach) John Gaillot and I are checking to see if schools just outside of the county are interested,” said Butler girls coach John Williams. “It’s a great time of year to get kids a lot of reps.”

One such school — Grove City — will be joining the meet. Williams said two or three others could be added Monday.

“A couple of big meets were scheduled Saturday and a lot of teams decided not to compete in them (due to weather concerns), so we’ll see,” he said.

Williams explained that the dates available to reschedule the meet from the original date are limited. The Butler County Classic will begin at 2 p.m. Thursday.

“You can’t push it too far into the season,” he said. “Teams will be having dual meets and competing at invitationals, which really pick up later in April. You can’t have kids competing too many times in any one week.”

The Butler County Classic was the product of Williams’ desire to find a unique way to reintroduce track and field to local athletes after the 2020 season was wiped out by COVID.

The first one was hosted by Butler in 2021 and Seneca Valley held the event last year. Williams hopes it becomes a yearly tradition.

“I don’t see why not,” he said. “The top three finishers in each event receive a Butler County Classic T-shirt. I've seen kids wearing them at meets the last couple of years, so that's a good indicator. The kids like it and it's great for local schools."

Butler boys coach Mike Seybert spoke of the advantages of holding the event.

“There's schools of much different sizes," he said, "but we don't keep team scores at this meet and athletes are athletes.

“These schools are our neighbors and this gives us a chance to see the talent they have."

It has not been determined whether meet records established during Thursday’s competition will be counted as Butler County Classic records.

“We haven’t really thought about that yet,” Williams said. “It’s just important to keep the continuity of this event going. I like the idea of a different school hosting it each year and we’re going to stay with that.”

Sports Editor John Enrietto contributed to this report