ADAMS TWP — He had no teammates. He had no coach.

Mars senior Ori Rinaman participated in indoor track and field this winter anyway — and did pretty well at that.

Rinaman placed fifth in the 60-meter hurdles, posting a time of 8.18 seconds last weekend at the Pennsylvania Indoor Track and Field Championships held at State College.

“No other Mars athletes have interest in doing indoor track,” Chuck Rinaman, Ori's father, said. “So he decided to do it on his own.

“He practices by himself. He goes to the gym by himself. I never had to encourage him or remind him to keep training. He knows what he wants.”

Rinaman has been doing this for three years now. He qualified for the state indoor meet as a sophomore and finished 17th. He didn't go to states last winter, having competed in only one indoor meet.

“They kept canceling meets because of bad weather,” Rinaman recalled. “This year, I was able to do four meets (at Edinboro) leading up to states.

“I never really hit the times I wanted up in Edinboro. I knew I could do better. It came together for me at the state meet.”

Rinaman rushed for 1,237 yards and 16 touchdowns for the Planets last football season. But his first love is the hurdles.

That's why he pursued the indoor season alone. And he's headed to Shippensburg University to compete in the hurdles next year.

“I love competition and working toward doing the best I can,” Rinaman said. “To compete in the sport you love, you do what you have to do.”

For Rinaman, that means going downstairs to the bottom floor of Mars High School and practicing the hurdles alone in a hallway for an hour and a half every day after school.

“I have enough room to set up two hurdles down there. It helps,” Rinaman said.

After hurdles practice, Rinaman heads to a local gym and works out for another 60 to 90 minutes each day before going home. Since spring track practice opened Monday, he's working out with his teammates again.

During the winter, Mars High School track coach Aaron Rekich sent Rinaman text messages about workouts and drills that aided his training.

Rekich was unable to attend the indoor meets, however.

“Ori was pretty much on his own,” his father said. “He's a pretty dedicated, determined athlete.”

Rinaman led all of Butler County last spring with times of 14.51 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles and 39.12 in the 300 hurdles. He had the county's second fastest time in the 100 meters — trailing only Karns City's Logan Moroney — with a 10.9.

Mars' Nate Bayuk, Sonny Zangaro, Eric Kingsley and Rinaman had the county's best 4x400 meter relay time at 3:27.12 last spring.

“My only goals this spring are to work as hard as I can and post the best times I'm capable of doing,” Rinaman said. “As long as I do my best and work hard, whatever happens, happens.

“I can live with the results.”

He admitted he thought about pursuing football in college, but that sport simply takes a back seat to the hurdles.

“It all comes back to what you love and I've been into the hurdles since seventh grade,” Rinaman said. “I love looking at the times of guys who are faster than me and working at trying to catch them. It's never-ending competition.

“I went to a camp at Shippensburg, met the coach and really liked him. I felt right away like I could fit in there.”

Rinaman plans to major in criminal justice. He is carrying a 3.5 grade point average in high school.